This Week's Miscellany (03/31/22)
More on why kids hate reading, wisdom from Brideshead, my current reads, & Easter baskets
Hello to new subscribers and welcome all to another edition of This Week’s Miscellany. TWM is full of my favorite things from around the web, typically trending literary.
Same song, different verse from the Stewart household this week. Alas! Will all six of us ever be healthy for a whole week together? May spring bring the blessing of relief from this merry-go-round of colds.
We may not have matching socks around here, but we do have books.
And (as you can see in the lower left of this photo) alligators. Spotted two on my weekend stroll with my 11yo daughter at a nearby walking trail. It’s fun to be back in Florida where it’s simply part of life to live with dinosaurs.
But you’re not here to talk reptiles. Let’s get to some bookishness!
Interesting Links
Litanies of Reclamation: A Review of The Lost Words by Sally Thomas for Plough (hat tip to
) first introduced me to The Lost Words by Robert McFarlane (and I purchased a copy of his The Lost Spells when I visited a bookshop in Oxford with her—a happy bookish memory!) If you care about words and sharing the beauty and power of words with children, you will love these books. This piece is a must read, and also touches on something I’ve been harping on in this Substack: how we teach literature to children.Many of us may feel as numb to the declarative power of poetry as we are to the textured reality of nature. For instance, we might have had Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” explicated to us by our eleventh-grade English teacher as a poem about suicidal ideation, full stop, because the woods are dark and cold like death, and snow is white, which is a color symbolically associated with death. If this has been our experience, then it’s understandable that we might struggle to see the forest for the death wish. Meanwhile, the poem’s undeniable music – “… the sweep / Of easy wind and downy flake” – goes unheard.
One of my soapboxes is to teach children to love poetry and all great literature before teaching them to dissect it. Which brings me to a recent piece on a similar topic (my apologies if it’s behind the Atlantic’s paywall):
Why Kids Aren’t Falling in Love with Reading (Hint: It’s Not Just the Screens) by Katherine Marsh for The Atlantic
In New York, where I was in public elementary school in the early ‘80s, we did have state assessments that tested reading level and comprehension, but the focus was on reading as many books as possible and engaging emotionally with them as a way to develop the requisite skills. Now the focus on reading analytically seems to be squashing that organic enjoyment. Critical reading is an important skill, especially for a generation bombarded with information, much of it unreliable or deceptive. But this hyperfocus on analysis comes at a steep price: The love of books and storytelling is being lost.
YES. So much emphasis is placed on standards that are easy to measure—but at great cost. My children’s school uses IXL programming for math and some English skills. While it makes it easy for teachers to pinpoint problem areas for individual students, it severely diminishes their enjoyment of the subjects. (I’m making this claim based on discussions with a school psychologist as well as my own experience and that of other parents. A quick Google search can confirm how it is universally despised by students.) So sure, we can measure precisely—but at what cost? Children who now hate math? Children who think literature is a soulless analysis? I passionately object!
‘Aiming at human flourishing’ - Catholic teacher credentialing program has lofty goals from
Ultimately, the goal of Catholic education is not just to know things, she said, but to love that which is worth loving, in imitation of God, who is love.
The Catholic Educator Formation and Credential program was born from a desire to help teachers reclaim that Catholic worldview in the way they teach – and the way they think about teaching.
As a parent of kids in Catholic school (and editor of a Catholic publisher’s children’s imprint) trends in Catholic education are of great interest to me and I was encouraged by this article.
Peter Hitchens doesn’t understand Charles Dickens by Henry Oliver of
Hitchens thinks Dickens “described the English people and their character as nobody else ever has.” But the genius of Dickens’ characters is that they are not real. He took eccentric aspects of the British character and magnified them. Does Hitchens really think women like Miss Havisham—opium or otherwise—realistically describe the English people? If he has met anyone truly like Mrs Gamp or Uriah Heep, or any of the meek and characterless young women who Dickens writes as if they were made of perfumed tissue paper, I’ll eat my hat and swallow the buckle whole. Dickens holds up a carnival mirror to the British character.
This piece made me want to go back and read more Dickens. A Christmas Carol is my oldest child’s favorite book in the world. (Another one of my soapboxes is that we should teach freshman in high school A Christmas Carol before throwing Great Expectations at them). Maybe I should consider Dickens for our next family read aloud.
To Live More Musically (On Brideshead Revisited) by Denise Trull for Dappled Things
And you think it ends there, Charles steeped in unsurprising cynicism. It does not. Waugh gently lays down the bombshell that will one day explode the hardening shell around the heart of Charles. We hear the ghostly future Charles crying in the mouth of the present cynic on the page. “God forgive me!” And once again, with those three words I was — undone.
Had I too grown unable to see the music behind the suffering world? Did I protect my heart with cynicism and obvious facts that could not be denied? Did I call joyful, saintly folk “boobies” in my heart for being so unable to see that they were being duped by the wiles of evil; still hoping in a world that obviously did not warrant hope. God forgive me, I echoed Charles, and let the book drop in my lap. I had become a cynic.
If you read one piece during this horrible week when anyone who watches the news has wrestled with the darkness that saturates our world, putting even schoolchildren at risk, let it be this one. God forgive us for seeing hope as foolishness.
What I’m Reading
The Invisible Child: On Reading and Writing Books for Children by Katherine Paterson
This book by the author of children’s classics including The Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved is really a collection of Paterson’s acceptance speeches for the many awards for children’s literature that she has received. While perhaps that doesn’t sound very exciting, let me assure you that it is completely engrossing. I read the whole thing within three days. It’s by far the best book on the vocation of writing that I’ve read since Walking on Water. I have “yes! Exactly this!” written in so many places in the margins. Paterson and I are clearly kindred spirits in our views on what children’s literature should be and since she’s still living, I dream of visiting her in New England and having a conversation about it. HIGHLY recommend.
The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs
If, like yours truly, you like books about books, then you’ll like this one. It’s thoughtful, delightful, and has enough Austen references to warm my Janeite heart.
Speaking of…
We’re in the thick of Emma for our Year of Jane book club. I’ll be in your inbox Sunday chatting about Austen and friendship!
Mouse Nuns and Easter Baskets
If you’re Easter basket shopping for a whimsical springtime story about mouse nuns who live underneath the floorboards of G.K. Chesterton’s house, run a school for village mice, and solve local crimes—look no further!
Here’s a little review from GoodReads: “A total joy to read this aloud with my second grader! She and her close friends at school even started a book club to discuss it, which delighted my book-lovin’ mama’s heart.”
Grab a copy from my publisher Pauline Books & Media or from Amazon.
And that’s all folks! Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. And a huge thank you to Kristin, Geoffrey, Reba, and Laura for upgrading to a paid subscription. This is a reader-supported newsletter so if you enjoy getting these emails, pleas consider supporting this Substack by upgrading to a paid subscription with the button below.
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Thanks for reading!
Haley
(Editor of Word on Fire Spark, Author, Former Podcaster)
Haley’s Children’s Mystery Series about Mouse Nuns
The Invisible Child: On Reading and Writing Books for Children by Katherine Paterson
This book sounds intriguing; thanks for the suggestion, I’ll have to check it out.
Since having children, I have become very picky about what my kids are reading. I want to enjoy the picture book along with them and not just be annoyed.
Dickens is my favourite author and I savour all his novels (the only one left to read for me is Pickwick Papers). I wanted to share my enthusiasm for his rich, profoundly true, and often uproariously humorous use of language with my homeschool co-op students and together we created a Classic Learner's Edition of A Christmas Carol. The students helped to create vocabulary trivia games and activities and I compiled a glossary and copywork list of all the classical words students might trip over. We published the final product which includes Dickens's unabridged original as well as a read-aloud version.
On my website you can get a free download of the read-aloud version (although it is abridged and can be read in about 40 minutes, it includes Dickens’ words only and thus preserves the humour and brilliance)
https://humanitasfamily.net/books/
Also, Michael Clay Thompson's Language Arts Curriculum has a wonderful approach to classic novels which maintains students love for the work, rather than tediously dissecting it. He also has beautiful poetry curriculum alongside called 'Music of the Hemispheres'.
Thanks for your inspiring post!