Matters of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of True Happiness

Oct. 9, 2007 - Review: A Well-Educated Mind or Get Your Scholar Phase! :-)

I know, I know. I said I'd do a review of The Well-Trained Mind and I will. First I wanted to give a review of A Well-Educated Mind because that's what I'm reading at the moment and I'm really enjoying it. I wish someone had recommended this book to me much earlier in my life. It's what I've been missing! In my review of A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille I mentioned the phases of learning. Scholar Phase is where the scholar basically learns everything about everything. In Depth phase he will move into detailed study of subjects needed for his life's mission. I missed out on scholar phase when I was younger. Ideally it would happen in what would be the high school years. I've read a few classics, but would really like to become intimately familiar with a good deal more. I'd also like to improve my critical thinking and writing skills. I'm so excited about The Well-Educated Mind because that's exactly what it will help me to do! This book is not for someone who wants to casually and leisurely read some brain candy fluff before bedtime. The classics require intense focus while reading and so you should be prepared to give your brain a workout. What I love about The Well-Trained Mind and The Well-Educated Mind in general is the emphasis on working your way through material chronologically. That way, when you're reading through histories or poetry or novels you have a grasp on what the cultural views and general philosophies were at the time the work was written. It gives you a much better perspective on where the human race has been before and where we might go in the future. My baby, Bitty (1), has woken me up at 5 the past two days to nurse. Instead of going back to bed after she falls back to sleep, I've used this quiet, by myself time (there just isn't much of that when you're a mom) to read. It's been lovely. It's only been two days, but it has been lovely.  I hope to do this 4 times per week. I'm going to create my commonplace book today or tomorrow. While I'd heard of a commonplace book many times during my years associating with other Thomas Jefferson Education families, I never really had a grasp on what it was, exactly, or how to make one. A Well-Educated Mind fills in the details on how to read the classics and create this journal of your studies. It makes perfect sense now, and I'm excited to get started! I'm going to start with the list of novels, which are the easiest classics to work with. Up first is Don Quixote. If I were really ambitious I'd brush up on my Spanish and read it in the original language, but I think I'll save that for a future reading. So, if you're looking to do your Scholar Phase and would like a more concrete plan of attack, do yourself a favor and get yourself a copy of A Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Brown. __ "Live free or die. Death is not the worst of evils." ~ General John Stark

Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link

Oct. 9, 2007 - Review: A Thomas Jefferson Education