Book Review: Jorn Uhl by Gustav Frenssen

Dear Reader,

This is not going to be a proper book review. It has been a while since I read this book, but I have been meaning to post something on it. This is an older German novel. I came across it thanks to Charlotte Mason who discusses it in detail in her fifth volume, Formation of Character. She uses the main character, Jorn (there should be an umlaut in his name but I don’t know how to do that; my apologies to Germans), as an example of a child who, although largely ignored by the adults in his life, comes to have his own sort of education (I discussed this a little in this earlier post).

Charlotte’s comments intrigued me so much that I set put to find the book. The only copy I could find was electronic. You can download it here. The copy is not the best. There are a lot of odd things in the text (like stray letters), but I quickly adjusted to just ignoring them.  Apparently, this book, which was contemporary in Charlotte’s time, had a surge of popularity then. But it seems not to have stood the test of time well since I couldn’t find even a single hard copy.

That is a shame because this was an enjoyable book. The story was at times slow, as older books often are, but it did draw me in. It also made me think which I consider high praise for a book. Charlotte has already said a lot about what the book has to say about education. I don’t want to recover all that ground. It also has a lot to say about faith and what true Christianity is. Here are my two favorite quotes form the book:

In this first one, Jorn is walking with an older man not known for talking much. Jorn has done a heroic deed, rescuing some children, and the old man is discussing it with him:

“[Jorn says:] ‘Oh, yes . . . but it seems to me all one whether I do it with or without God.’

‘Not by a long way, Jorn . . . . For see here now: If ye do it on your own responsibility ye’ll be proud, and fancy yourself, and become cocked up and perhaps a bit of a fool. Neither will ye always do what ‘s good nor just hit on what’s right, neither. And ye won’t have any real joy o’ what ye’ve done, because ye haven’t done it for His sake, but for your own and other folk’s. But if ye put yourself on God’s side and do everything for His sake, then ye’ll laugh and rejoice and know for certain when ye’re doing what’s right, and ye’ll have understanding for everything, and will be able to defy and to rejoice at the whole world. Our hearts on God’s side, and our hands against the dogs, and against everything bad i’ the world; — that’s Chreestianity.’”

In the second quote, Jorn Uhl is older (this is nearly at the end of the book) and is contemplating all the things that have happened to him in his life:

“Jorn Uhl stood near the other window and answered: ‘In times gone by, when I was still very young, I thought there were only two kinds of things that could confront a man — things that can be bent, and those that can be broken. But afterwards, in the sad years, I found out that there is a third kind — things that come and stand for a moment, or maybe for whole years, before one, like some great, wild, black monster raising its cruel paws with claws dead and white. What is one to do against it? Turn aside? Flatter? Lie? There’s no sense in that. There it stands, right in front of you, and it is mad, Theiss, mad. It has no understanding. It’s a cruel, wild being. It’s no good attacking it, for it’s much the stronger. Well, face to face with such a monster, with such an overpowering fate, what alternative is there? Only one. We must say to it, “Whether you kill me or let me live, whether you devour me and those I love or not, whether you unsettle my understanding with your everlasting threats and the sight of your claws or not, be that as you choose; but one thing I tell you, it all happens in the name of God in Whom I put my trust, and firmly belive that His cause — which is the good — will triumph, in me and everywhere. . . . “

Now I’ve given you the best parts of the book But I still recommend you read it.

Nebby

New Thoughts on Writing

Dear Reader,

This seems to be a subject I keep coming back to. I also find that it comes up in discussion with a lot of other homeschool moms. Writing is a tough subject to teach. One of the biggest hurdles is just know how much to teach it and how. Do we make them write every day? Do we concentrate on the mechanics? Do we point out every  mistake? Do we care more about building their self-esteem and confidence? Do we focus on creative writing? The list goes on and on.

I have blogged previously on our attempts this year to follow something like the progymnasmata,  a classical approach to writing. What I really have liked, and still do like about this approach, is that it teaches writing through imitation. Just as painters learn by copying the great masters, so our kids learn by copying good writing. I also like that it does not leave kids floundering in search of a topic. While what we have done (rewriting fables and narratives) is creative, it doesn’t leave all the finding of ideas up to the child; they have some direction given in the assignment itself. And my kids have responded very well to what we have done this year. In fact, my daughter asks to do it more often. My son does not, but he does put in a good effort and generates some good writing when we do it.

But I am not sure we are going to continue with the progymnasmata. Mostly I am at a loss as to what to do beyond fable and narrative. The progym calls for some forms of writing which I just don’t find that valuable. For example, one is asked to write an essay praising a famous person. It sounds very ancient Roman to me, but it just doesn’t seem like a form of writing that will be valuable to my kids.

Instead, I think I would like to take the principle behind the progym and apply it to more modern forms of writing. We can still imitate good writing, but I’d like to focus on kinds of writing that I think my kids will actually need some day. Having said which, I haven’t actually decided what those are or made a plan about how to proceed from here. I have till September at this point to think about it and I am most definitely open to ideas if you have any.

But I also wanted to say that while these kinds of writing assignments are something we do every couple of weeks or so, I do not view them as the only thing we do to build writing skills. Taking a Charlotte Mason approach to education, we do a lot of narrating. Most of what we do is oral at this point, but the children do do at least two written narrations a week. And the older two kids, at least, do a good job with it. Even oral narration requires kids to organize their thoughts and present them logically. This is a large part of the process of writing. We do some grammar and spelling as well as copywork or dictation to help with the mechanics. But I do not correct their errors in their written narrations. In fact, I usually don’t read the older kids’ but have them read them aloud to us so if there are spelling errors or the like, I don’t see them.

I have also been very encouraged lately by this article by Stephen Palmer at TJEd (see my post on TJEd here). I first ran across this article thanks to Homeschooling Middle East. The part that particularly strikes me is this:

“I’d rather have a wild stallion as a student who thinks wild and free, than a docile gelding who knows the technicalities but doesn’t know how to think.”

and this:

“Big ideas should be the pilot, technicalities the co-pilot.”

In other words, don’t worry too much about the mechanics of writing (though there is a time to polish those up), the most important thing is that kids have ideas so they have something to write about. I think Charlotte Mason would be cheering us on at this point. Her whole approach is about feeding kids with real, living materials that contain the intellectual food their minds need which is ideas. So really one of the biggest things we do to foster good writing may involve no writing at all; it is just to have them read (or read to them) good, living books. One can’t write if one has nothing to say. Ideas fill their minds, give them something intellectual to chew on. And it is only after they have been ingesting these ideas for a number of years that we can really expect them to produce some good writing of their own. So I don’t think early writing instruction can be that helpful. They need time to take in ideas first before they produce much. Of course, mechanics are still important. But if they have something to say, they will want to communicate it clearly to others and then (I hope) they will desire to learn the mechanics so that their writing can be easily understood by others.

So I think the basic outlines of my plan for the future are to continue to read and narrate from good books and to occasionally look more closely at a good piece of writing and to try to imitate it in some way. When I say this, I mean to look at one specific aspect of a piece and to focus on what makes it effective writing. An example might be a piece that switches to using short sentences when the action gets moving. We would read the piece, talk about how the author varies his sentence structure to convey action, and then have the kids try it on their own.

Those are my thoughts on writing at the moment. What are yours?

Nebby

Two Blog Carnivals

Dear Reader,

There is lots to read this week. The Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival is here, and the Carnival of Homeschooling is here.

Nebby

Family Time vs. Individual Time

Dear Reader,

I have been thinking some about how we plan our activities and particularly how many things the kids do together versus how many things they get to do without siblings. With four kids close in age (5 years from oldest to youngest) it has been natural to put them in the same extracurricular classes as much as possible. They get to do more things that way without me having to drive around any more or to make our weekly schedule super crazy.

At the moment we have what is for us a very light schedule. Our only regular activities are:

gymnastics – all 4 kids

guitar – my older daughter only

dance  — all but the older boy; the three classes are all on the same evening over the course of two hours but no two kids are in the same class

They also have Sunday school in which only the oldest two are in the same class. Until a couple of weeks ago, they were all in a Lego engineering class together and the younger three were in pottery together.

My older daughter is the one that has the issue with being with her siblings. She just feels a need for  a break from them and some time to do her own thing. I suspect that a lot of it is that she tends to be stuck with the younger two who like to do whatever she does and who are chatty. I think she is perhaps a little embarrassed by them and they may occasionally tell stories in class that she doesn’t want told. She has said that they always follow her into classes which is not really fair since dance and pottery were both things my younger boy did first and she followed him into. When they were doing art class, it was definitely true that the younger ones began to tag along when they were old enough.

But I do understand her need for  a break from them. As a homeschooling family, we do spend a lot of time together and being mostly introverted people, we do sometimes just need some space. Her little sister in particular shares a room with her and also tends to follow around and hang out with her friends.

I am also contemplating all this in light of the fact that our church plans to start a youth group soon. We are a small church and my older son at 12, going on 13, is one of the older kids. But in a  few years we will begin to have quite a crop of teenagers. Honestly, I have no idea how the elders envision the youth group looking, but I know in our previous church it was an issue for some families that the youth group seemed to divide families and particularly that younger siblings felt left out. And in principle, I am not really keen on groups that divide the family or that segregate people by age. But, on the other hand, I see my daughter’s need for some space. So I guess the question I am struggling with is how much space is enough without making the younger kids feel left out. It is one of those “it’s hard to balance everyone’s needs” things.

I’d love to hear suggestions of what others have done. I’d also love to hear how other church youth groups have worked and what you have liked or not liked about them.

Nebby

The Books We Let Our Children Read

Dear Reader,

I have touched in a number of ways on what books are appropriate for children and which ones aren’t. Here, for instance, is a recent post debating (with myself) why some things in books bother me and others don’t. Now as I work my way through Charlotte Mason’s fifth volume, Formation of Character, I find that she also (no surprise) addresses this issue.

In that previous post one of the issues I pondered was how much we should expose our children to ideas or world views or value systems which are not our own. For example, in the book Hoot my friend was horrified at the relativism, how the children do wrong things in a  good cause and that the book seems to approve these actions. I, on the other hand, loved the book and it never occurred to me my children would pick up relativistic values from it (and I am not at all sure they did).

Charlotte seems to address just such topics in this quote:

“How many parents see to it that their sons and daughters read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest this one novel Pendennis before they go to college or otherwise go out into life? It is stupid to disregard such a means of instruction . . . ‘But,’ says a good mother, ‘I disapprove of novels for another reason besides that they are a waste of time. I have striven to bring up my family in innocence, and wish to keep them still from that very knowledge of life which novels have to offer.’ There is a good deal to be said for this point of view; but the decisions of life are not simple, and to taboo knowledge is not to secure innocence.” (p.237)

I love this bit especially: “but the decisions of life are not simple.” Because they are not. Nor can we protect our children from the nastiness of life. Of course, this does not mean that one does not take into account their child’s age and situation, but I also think there is good reason to allow our children to first encounter they grayness of life and all its complications through fiction. Let them begin to think about issues of right and wrong and where the lines are while it is all pretend, because at some point they will meet such decisions in real life as well.

Nebby

Blog Carnival

Dear Reader,

You can check out the new Carnival of Homeschooling here.

Nebby

Teaching Children to Will

Dear Reader,

For the next Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival, I am reading through the eighth chapter of her sixth book, “The Way of the Will.” This chapter discusses the will, that power by which we make decisions. The will is hard to define but it is what we exercise when we act or think deliberately, when we do not merely act from habit or parrot the opinions received from others. When you do what you don’t want to because it is your duty, that is the will at work. The simplest example might be what we call will-power today  — turning down a piece of chocolate cake because it is not good for us. Not a life-altering decision and yet how hard is it for us even to do that?

But we want our children to be ruled by their wills, to be able to stand up to others and even to their own desires and inclinations and to say “yes” or “no” because it is the right thing to do and not because others push them or because their own desires demand it.

Charlotte being Charlotte covers a lot in this not so long chapter, but I would like to focus on what she has to say about how we teach our children to be wilful (meant in the good way, not how we usually use that term). She is very adamant that teaching the way of the will is a part, a main part even, of education. But how one earth do we do it?

Charlotte begins by telling us what we should not do. She is firmly opposed to what she calls “the use of suggestion.” This is one of those bits that is hard to understand because she uses seemingly ordinary words without explaining them  in a way that we no longer use them. But I imagine that she is referring to all those ways that we try to influence each other with subtle (or not so subtle) little comments. For example, I was watching a sitcom the other day and the wife laid a pretty good guilt trip on someone else and her husband said, “Oh, honey, you will make such  a good mother!” And of course the audience laughed because this is what we expect parents to do. To be able to control their children through guilt or other such emotions is acceptable. The important thing is that they do what you want them to, not how you get there. But Charlotte tells us that we must respect the personalities of our children and we can not control them through manipulation. Apart from the crime that such methods are against our children’s natures, they are not ultimately successful because they do not instill long-lasting character. Charlotte puts it this way:

” . . .those who propose suggestion as a means of education do not consider that with every such attempt upon a child they weaken that which should make a man of him, his own power of choice” (p.130).

So what is the right way to go about it? Charlotte suggests providing the child with a “map of the City of Mansoul.” This is something she expounds upon at length in her fourth book, Ourselves. In that volume, she basically elucidates an extended analogy in wich we each are kingdoms with various ministers (appetites, desires) each playing their part but also each trying to seize control. I can recommend no better way to introduce this subject to children than to read through her book with them. She recommends doing so around age 12 I believe. It is a very useful exercise for anyone to see how our desires play upon us and how we must not always be led by them. To not do so, but to discriminate between them is to exercise the will.

The second suggestion Charlotte has is to “put clearly before the child the possibility of a drifting, easy life led by appetite or desire in which will plays no part; and the other possibility of using the power and responsibility proper to him as a person and willing as he goes” (pp.131-32). The way we do this is through good books which show how the lives of other people play out. Stories will communicate the messages much more effectively than all our lecturing could do. It is much more profitable for a child to read in a book the effects of bad choices upon another’s life and to come to his own conclusions about them than for us to be continually telling him that he mts not do this, that, and the other.

Charlotte goes on to say that “But always the first condition of will, good or ill, is an object outside of self” (p.133). In other words, to strengthen our children’s wills, we need to encourage them to look beyond themselves and not to be self-focused. We live in a  very selfish culture, much more so than I think Charlotte could have imagined. One of the best tools I have found for countering this is to be a part of a church with many ages and types of people and to actively pray for the needs of others.There is almost always someone whose problems are worse than ours.

A major tenet of Charlotte’s philosophy of education is that ideas are the food of the mind. It is only an education which includes ideas, transmitted through living materials, that will help to build the will. But, Charlotte cautions, we must be ware of which ideas we present. To focus too much on the “self-” ideas, things like self-control and self-knowledge, is detrimental. Here is how she puts it:

“While affording some secrets of ‘the way of the will’ to young people, we should perhaps beware of presenting the ideas of ‘self-knowledge, self-reverence, and self control.’ All adequate education must be outward bound.” (p.137)

Our culture in particular focuses a lot on building the child’s self-esteem (just look at any parenting  magazine!). But this is counter-productive. There is enough to make us focus inwardly; we must strive to help out children focus outwardly but showing them the very real needs of others.

It is not an easy, simple formula — use this curriculum and raise children who are able to say yes to the good and no to the bad. I wish I had still more direction on how to go about this. I would love to hear other ideas if you have them. But perhaps there is only so far one can go with such things.

Nebby