Book Review: Robert Frost, Teacher by Nancy Vogel

Robert Frost, Teacher by Nancy Vogel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed reading about Robert Frost as an educator. Did you know he and his wife educated their children at home? And although he taught at colleges, he didn't earn a degree in the typical fashion, but was given multiple honorary ones. His "lover's quarrel with the world," as he put it, definitely included educational establishments. He was a unique teacher. One story relates how he once asked his class after they'd handed in their papers whether anyone cared enough for what he'd written to want his paper returned after he'd read them. No one wanted the papers, so Frost went over and threw the whole stack in the trash, saying he didn't "intend to become a reader perfunctory of perfunctory writing." :) He was a thinker who made many thought-provoking statements in his teaching, lecturing, and literature.
This little book consists mainly of a lot of quotes. It also repeats some of the same thoughts in some of the chapters, from slightly different angles to make different points. Maybe the idea was to have the chapters stand alone. It is well-documented, which I appreciate. It's sort of a rare book currently and I got it on inter-library loan, having heard about it from another book. I didn't like it enough to pay an inflated price for it to get my own copy. I do want to write out some quotes to keep and reference, and it did make me curious to possibly read another more complete biography of Frost someday.

Some more interesting Robert Frost quotes:

"I accept school just as I accept the sonnet form or any other social convention: only it seems to be in me to want to make the school as un-schoollike as possible" (9).

"I have wanted in late years to go further and further in making metaphor the whole of thinking"
(51).

"literature courses are for those who aren't going to be writers, who're going to be readers. The writers should take history, science, philosophy" (60).

"we go to college to be given one more chance to learn to read in case we haven't learned in High School. Once we have learned to read the rest can be trusted to add itself to us" (61).

"The greatest nonsense of our time has been the solution of the school problem by forsaking knowledge for thought.... The point is that neither knowledge nor thought is an end and neither is nearer an end than the other. The end they both serve, perhaps equally, is deeds in such accepted and nameable forms as the sonnet, the story, the vase, the portrait, the landscape, the hat, the scythe, the gun, the food, the bread, the house, the home, the factory, the election, the government. We must always be about definite deeds to be growing" (62-3).

"I am a terribly hard judge on people without books" (72).

"I once said to a class at Amherst that any boy who bought one hundred dollars' worth of books would get the mark of A, or B for fifty dollars' worth, and the rest would fail" (72).



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Book Review: The Thread That Runs So True by Jesse Stuart

The Thread That Runs So True by Jesse Stuart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This classic was an interesting read. Jesse Stuart used to be a household name and this book was quite famous, though I'd never heard of it until it was recommended to me. It's about Stuart's teaching experience in one-room schoolhouses and other rural schools. He was an old-time teacher who got out of the profession as it was in the process of changing into what it is today. It was good for me to get his perspectives, both as a very young man and one with more experience, and to see some of the things that teachers were up against in those times. He thought that more professional schools and teachers would help with many problems in the school system. He advocated for this, and for many changes that took place slowly in his lifetime. He discussed various issues such as small-town politics, poverty, and even violence, as these things affected the schools and his own life. He was quite zealous about the value of education -- made me think of John Gatto's discussion of the "true believer." His perspective changed somewhat in the end as he realized that the schools were turning into a vast assembly line system and the individuals getting lost within it, while teachers still weren't earning enough income to feel they could even support a family. While he still loved teaching, he eventually left it behind to return to farming, the profession of his roots, and to finally marry the woman he loved. What I most appreciated about this book were the methods he used to reach people educationally, to help them grow as learners; the peek into another time in our country's educational life and his unique perspective on it; and his insights that came later as the schools became more systematized and consolidated. Aside from these things, he tells some pretty amazing and amusing stories as well.

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Reading 2016

In 2015, I made a grand total of 3 blog posts.  All I did with the blog at all was post a few book reviews and sort of keep my reading list updated.  I was more active on Goodreads than I was here. I don't have plans to emphasize my blog in 2016, either.  There are just too many higher priorities for me in this season for me to feel I'll be able to consistently devote the time to writing here.  I do still harbor some hopes that I'll perhaps be able to post now and then, and about something in addition to books.  We'll see.  But I want to post my reading goals here at least, and continue to update my reading list.

Reading Goals 2016:  

Complete at least 30 40 Books.  (DONE! YAY! 46!) This goal is purposefully low in order to encourage me to go for quality rather than quantity, and even more importantly, to allow me to freely focus on other priorities.  I still want and need to read several books, and think I'll probably read more than 30, but I anticipate enough challenge in this year in other areas that I don't think I need a higher goal right now. [Note Feb 2016: I have upped my goal to 40 books, as I've already read more than half of 30 and we're not even halfway through February.  This is still purposefully low and I might find that I want to raise it again.  Since I am counting children's picture books that I read for the first time, and I've read aloud quite a few new-to-me from the library with my younger ones lately, the titles accumulate faster.

I would like to read these 5 specific books this year (Update 12/31/16:  Done!):    
1.      Les Miserables by Victor Hugo  (completed 12/1/16)   
2.      That You May Know Him! by Clifford Deister (completed December 2016)  
3.      Walden by Henry David Thoreau   (completed December 2016)
4.      Young Man Luther by Erik Erikson  (completed 12/31/16) 
5.      The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom (completed 6/2016)

I would also like to read something that fits each of the following categories (Update 12/31/16:  All done except one author under #1, which I plan to complete in 2017).  Some books can fit more than one, so the number of books it will take to fill these will depend on the specific selections:    
1.   One from at least 5 of these authors:                                 
               i.     Jane Austen  (Completed Jan 2016 -- Persuasion)                            
               ii.   Charles Dickens  (Oliver Twist, completed December)                           
               iii.  Shakespeare  (Macbeth, completed May 2016)                          
               iv.  C.S. Lewis     (The Great Divorce, completed November 2016)                      
               v.   G. A. Henty            
               vi.  Sir Walter Scott (if I choose this I'll probably try either Rob Roy or The Talisman)                         
               vii. Alexandre Dumas (The 3 Musketeers in progress from late Nov)    
2.      Book by Agatha Christie (completed Jan 2016 -- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd)(+ And Then There Were None)  
3.      Other major Classic not by one of the authors on this goal list already (1984 by George Orwell in progress 4/4/16 -- completed 6/2/16)
4.      A Re-read from when I was 17 or younger  (Bridge to Terabithia, Feb 2016) (also Island of the Blue Dolphins, Feb 2016, and Little Women also in progress)
5.      Picture Book not previously read (ideally find one or more I really like to get new for the children)(I've read several as of mid-Feb 2016, my favorite might be How To Be a Nature Detective by Millicent Selsam, I also kinda liked Babar and His Children)
6.      Classic Chapter Book suitable for elementary reading, not previously read (Old Bones the Wonder Horse, completed 9/7/16)(Oliver Twist could also count, as some would consider it appropriate for elementary reading, but I'm not sure I do... some is gruesome and much is dark in it -- maybe age 12-13 and up?  Does have some valuable lessons.)
7.      Book repeatedly recommended to me personally, still not read (completed Jan 2016 - The Thread that Runs So True by Jesse Stuart)  

8.      Book by David McCullough (The Wright Brothers, completed 4/13/16)
9.      Education   (completed Jan 2016 - The Thread That Runs So True by Jesse Stuart, also Robert Frost, Teacher by Nancy Vogel) (Underground History of American Education fits this also, completed Feb 2016)
10.  Parenting    (completed Jan 2016 - Full Time Parenting by Israel Wayne)(Say Goodbye to Whining... begun Mar 2016) (also What He Must Be...)
11.  Philosophy or Psychology  (Young Man Luther Dec 2016) (Feb 2016 -- Underground History of American Education) 
12.  Spiritually Related (aside from the Bible itself) (completed Nov 2016 - The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis) (also completed Dec 2016 - That You May Know Him by Clifford Deister)  
13.  History, Geography, or Biography (the latter is preferred) (completed Jan 2016 - The Thread That Runs So True by Jesse Stuart) (also The Wright Brothers April 2016) 

14.  Science or Math  (The Wright Brothers, completed 4/13/16) (A Beautiful Mind in progress) (If I have time I would benefit from a greater challenge that delves into something besides the history/bio of one of these areas -- alternatively I've considered just asking my son to teach me some higher level math :) ) 
15.  Politically Relevant (b/c it’s a presidential election year) (Are You Liberal, Conservative, or Confused? completed May 2016)  (1984 could count also -- completed June 2016)

I will update this as I complete books that meet the goals.

Some of the books I hope to read this year.

What are you hoping to read this year?