A New Academic Year: Advent in American Christianity

Each year, at various times of year, comes with new beginnings and learning new things. In August, I have been focusing on the "learning" aspect as well as the new academic year upcoming. Advent (the 4 weeks before Christmas) doesn't quite seem to fit from a calendar perspective. However, it does relate to both beginning something (new) and learning (new) things. 

Happy New Year!

Growing up, I heard this at several times and in several places. One was in church, generally at Pentecost (the "birthday" of the Christian church). Another was on campus during opening service right before the first day of fall-semester classes in late August. A third was, of course, in my family's living room at 12:01 on New Year's Eve/Day. One place where I haven't heard it is at the start of Advent.

What are your reactions when someone wishes you a happy new year at any of these times?

Advent’s ETA

The church season of Advent occurs during the four weeks immediately preceding Christmas Day, and starts on the Sunday closest to the Feast of St. Andrew. This year, the first Sunday of Advent is December 3, which is (coincidentally) my baptismal birthday, when I became a Christian at a few months old. Each Sunday in Advent has a theme: hope, peace, joy (Latin Gaudete), and love (Latin Laetare).

Academic Year ETA

The start of the academic year, at least in most of the Western hemisphere, is sometime in August. It varies depending on the school system, level of education (grade school versus high school versus college), and in homeschoolers' cases the parents' decision about what works best for the family. For me, the year starts on the 27th of this month, when faculty and students attend the opening service on campus.

Variation in Advent History and Celebration 

Here is where I discovered some new-to-me information and appreciated my own (Lutheran) heritage at a deeper level. Let's take a brief trip through the history of Advent celebration and observance. I may update this post with elements from the Eastern Church later, but now that would make the post of an unmanageable length.

Early Church

The Christian church started (naturally) with Jesus and His disciples on earth, i.e., around AD 33-36 after His incarnation, death, and bodily resurrection. The earliest documentation of a liturgical year that I could find is from around the same time, in Paul's writings (referencing celebration of days and seasons and years adapted or carried over from Judaism). Constantine, around the year 312, introduced more familiar seasons such as Lent into the calendar.

Western Church

The Western Church is operationally defined as more aligned with Augustine (sprouting Roman Catholic and Reformed traditions) than with the Orthodox traditions. Within this region and period and distributed body of believers, some denominations and traditions have been more formally observant of distinctive church seasons than others. Over time, these more observant traditions have included Lutheran, Orthodox, Episcopal, and Roman Catholic. 

In the Lutheran church, which began a bit after 1519, Advent observance blended elements from Roman Catholicism from which it sprang, and distinctive German cultural elements. Roman Catholic elements that were retained, at least in the Lutheran churches I grew up in and attended, were

• Deliberate meditation on elements of Advent to prepare mind and spirit
• Simplified family devotions to avoid becoming overwhelmed
• Advent wreath with candles
• Use of the 7 "O" antiphons from "O Come, O Come, Immanuel"
• Commemorating St. Nicholas (December 6)

German distinctives, in my experience, associated with Advent included

• Chocolate-filled Advent calendars
• An actual wreath material for the Advent candles
• An annual box of Stollen and Lebkuchen
• Congregational singing of Stille Nacht on Christmas Eve

One thing I learned a few weeks ago, in conversation with Husband, is that the Evangelical tradition has not historically celebrated all the seasons of the church year, especially Advent. In recent years, there is a discovery (2021 article) among members of those churches of what has long been there, resulting in new-to-them knowledge and observances. The Evangelical tradition has typically been non-liturgical--i.e., choosing to not use a set, recurring pattern of early-historic elements within each Sunday's service and across the entire year.

However, more are starting to realize that Advent is typically not celebrated by the wider world; Christmas shopping (consumerism) tends to take over instead of the restful, mindful pause. So, to be different or distinctively Christian, many are seeing that unique practices are helpful. Indeed, we appreciate Christmas more when we take Advent practices seriously.

Based on the etymology of "Advent" (the Latin term adventus, literally meaning "coming" and referring to the first coming of Christ), Evangelicals are incorporating certain elements at a congregational level. Advent practices being gradually appropriated by members of the Evangelical tradition include weekly candle lighting, specific hymns and songs for the season, and using set scriptural readings (plus more cultural practices of gradually building up a creche, opening a window in an Advent calendar, etc.). 

I found the article's list of Advent hymns and songs an interesting mix:

• O Come, O Come, Immanuel (words written 1710)
• Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus (words written early 1700s by Charles Wesley)
• God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen (words written in early 1700s)
• Breath of Heaven (words written 1992 by Amy Grant)
• Light of the World (words written 2013 by Lauren Daigle)

Variations in Academic Year History and Celebration

In my research for this post, I focused on the introduction of the Prussian model of education as a pivot point for school and academic-year orientation, primarily in the Western hemisphere. However, that turned out to be contemporaneous (or nearly so) with the other pivot in terms of the academic calendar generally used in the United States. Hopefully, I may update the post eventually with more international historical tidbits. Here are my sources.

Before

In colonial America, children's education was mandatory; however, one standard academic calendar was not in place. Although it's generally said that summer vacation was introduced due to need for farm-dwelling children to help their parents out during that season, at this time most rural schools operated year-round--city-dwelling children attended year-round, and rural-dwelling children attended in summer and winter ("slow" times for agriculture). Before the Civil War, some cities' school years were 260 days long.

Many elements of the current public school model actually preceded the Prussian model, which occurred around the time of the Industrial Revolution. That said, competing models of education have always existed.

Several sources describe the Prussian model of education as follows:

• Goal of reducing independent thought to enhance military victory
• Base level: Volksschulen or "common-folk schools" with reduced literacy (92-94% of children)
• Next level: Realschulen or "professional schools" with focus on building managerial skills (5-7% of children)
• Top level: Akademiensschulen or "academic schools" with focus on critical thinking and wide/deep reading (< 1% of children)

That said, there is some discrepancy of whether the "pivot" came around Horace Mann's introduction of the (centralized) Prussian model, or around the Industrial Revolution, or something else. Additionally, different camps have differing opinions on what "industrialization" means or connotes. The term "industry" is defined as the opposite of "idleness." Indeed, one benefit of the "monitorial" model at the time was that each student could work diligently at his or her own pace.

After

Whatever changes happened, now the typical academic year in the United States has these features:

• Decentralized control, by local governments
• No significant change to the model of education, although technology has been introduced to automate some previously-human-performed tasks in the educational process
• Summers off due to the "urban heat island effect" (city-dwellers fleeing in the summer before air conditioning was invented) and inaccurate science around the 1800s-1900s claiming that more cognitive rest is needed than is actually necessary

As someone who was homeschooled throughout pretty much the entire year, I found the online discussion of "standard" versus "balanced" academic calendars interesting.

What does a "standard" calendar (96% of public schools) look like?

• 180 days long
• Long summer break and minimal breaks during semesters
• Loss of cognitive skills over summer due to disuse
• Allowance for students' summer jobs, sports participation, longer traveling vacations, potentially parental ability to arrange childcare during work

What does a "balanced" calendar (4% of public schools) look like?

• 180 days long
• Shortened (5-6 or 10-12 week) summer break, week-long breaks within semesters or trimesters
• More equal semester lengths
• Less burnout for students and teachers
• Roughly equivalent cognitive skill loss
• Potentially more benefit for low-income students receiving school lunches
• Increased air conditioning costs for school buildings

What does your school year look like? How about your liturgical year?

Planning a (Small) Family's School Year

The new school year is soon to be upon us who are involved in teaching, learning, or both, in any educational setting. I am a planner. Chances are, you are too. So, how am I going about the planning for our small family’s academic year, in a rather unique situation? Come along for a rather autobiographical post.

Charlotte Mason-Style Planning

I've talked about Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy in a number of posts, including these topics:

• Reading with babies
• Reflections on re-reading
• Reflections on C. S. Lewis
• Late-winter reads
• Spring cleaning the shelves
• Outdoor reading and nature study
• Gardening metaphors
• Reading after graduation
• Nature study
• Roots of classical education

My primary source for more systematic discussion of planning in a Charlotte Mason style comes from Simply Charlotte Mason. Areas discussed include (in)formal education, habits, chores, and homeschooling (though at least one private school uses the Charlotte Mason method to provide blended private and parent-led homeschooling).

(In)formal Education

A pair of core principles in Charlotte's philosophy are (1) the personhood of children from birth and (2) the responsibility of the parent to set a "feast of ideas" in front of children to engage with. If you're sticking to the method for a number of years with your child(ren), some good tips regard scheduling, educational materials, and individualization. Materials should definitely include more than just books--add in art, tactile objects, and hands-on chores. Individuality of each family should breed flexibility within each day, week, month, and year.

As far as scheduling or planning a school year, it's useful to start with the biggest possible picture and gradually drill down. That is . . .

1. Educational philosophy. What are your goals for each child's overall education? See also The Commonplace channel hosted by homeschooling mama Autumn Kern.
2. Calendar year. What books and subjects do you want to cover?
3. Three terms of academic year. These are natural breaking points according to "trimester" schedules, plus typical Mason educators use 2 half-terms per term. How many chapters or shorter books do you want to cover in a term?
4. Weekly schedule. Which subjects on which weekday? Typically, 1x/week subjects tend to be picture study, music study, nature study, and instruction in arts/crafts.
5. Daily schedule. Arrange subjects by alternating level of mental challenge for the child(ren). Try to complete all lessons in as little of the morning and/or early afternoon as possible, after which get children outside or down for rest time. Balance materials, methods/skills, and movements of child(ren). Consider time blocks rather than timetables, especially in years with babies and young children!

Habits

Habits, such as paying full attention to a task, are extremely beneficial to incorporate within schedules. The educator should be intentional about habit categories to focus on for each child (e.g., attention) for 6-8 weeks each, allowing 2 habits to be thoroughly reinforced and explicitly incorporated in each term. What measurable behaviors will that habit produce in a child? The educator needs to repeat the cues and motivating ideas, tapering off so that the child becomes more independent and then fully independent incorporating the habit. I find that a visual cue in my planner helps to remind me to remind Child about whatever habit we're working on, and consistently communicate my expectations.

Chores

Household chores are excellent to incorporate into daily life and education. It's easiest to do so by starting to offer a chore as "play" when a very young child shows interest in using objects for their intended purpose. As an example, Child is currently interested in and good at moving objects between places (unloading dishwasher by handing me each dish), and interested in but not good at sweeping. As the interest shifts, also shift to reinforce the chore completion as a habit with as much intrinsic motivation as possible--this will serve the child well in later life.

Homeschooling Variations

When I was being homeschooled, my parents utilized the support of other homeschooling parents whose skill sets were different. For example, another parent taught dissection due to more biology background, and another parent taught drawing and painting, while my mom taught English composition. In Charlotte Mason education, a few tips for using weekly co-ops (the typical setting for these activities) include (1) clarifying the purpose it plays in your family, (2) doing some co-op subjects at home occasionally to avoid false mental dichotomies in children's minds, and (3) matching up less- and more-experienced parents as mentor-mentee pairs.

Another aspect, at least for Christian homeschoolers, is incorporation of family devotions. Mason typically differentiates between family devotions and Bible lessons. I've referenced the historical development (and implications) of devotions elsewhere. In terms of operational definitions, devotions usually focus on application or regular meditation (repetition) on particular passages, such as the Daily Office lectionary. Lessons, on the other hand, typically focus on literacy (head knowledge and familiarity with the words and history of Scripture and its narrated events), which is critically important to correct interpretation of the biblical text.

Do My State’s Regulations Matter?

If you're homeschooling, yes, they do. Here's a rundown:

• HSLDA is a central organization for coordinating legal assistance to homeschooling parents who may be experiencing challenges. 
• I live in a low-regulation state, the most common category. As such, I am required to provide notice that I am home educating each year, and am required to administer an annual number of instructional hours across specific subjects, but am not required to fill out a form and/or track instructional hours until Child reaches a certain age.
• In my state, instructional hours are either provided or supervised/delegated by me. Herein lies a good amount of flexibility, depending on what Child needs.
• Other categories of states' regulations are
• High regulation (primarily East Coast, fewest states). Moderate regulation requirements plus potential for home visits, curricular approval, and/or parents' teaching qualifications.
• Moderate regulation (primarily East Coast and northern states). Notification, selected test scores, and evaluation of student progress is sent to the school district.
• No-notice, low regulation (diagonal band connecting Illinois and Texas). No notification of withdrawal from public school is required.

How Might This Year Look for Us?

As you might have guessed, nobody in my family is actually "in" school at this time. So, brainstorming this post and the year has been interesting!

The Teacher

I'm a life-long learner. But, I'm also a teacher at the graduate level. Due to the nature of the program in which I teach and the university calendar (in its last transitional year), I have been teaching year-round without more than a week of non-instructional break between semesters (which still included at least 1-2 meetings). Summer is my busiest semester, oddly, with 3 different start dates and 3 different end dates across 5 courses, so it is nice to be approaching a fall semester where all my courses have the same start dates and end dates.

As far as I know, I'm done with formal education myself. However, I continue to have an aggressive reading list for theological and professional development, and hopefully getting an occasional novel in there! Lest you worry too much about me having no breaks due to the teaching load, I do have planned staycations coming up in slow parts of each semester. My priorities this school year are:

• Developing a new course in collaboration with some other professionals
• Maximizing time outside, with Child if possible
• Enhancing my bibliography with a published paper or two
• Learning Greek along with Husband in a church study group he's leading

The Pre-Student

Child currently loves "reading," serenading us, trying familiar or varied foods, being read to, and spending time running/climbing around outside! There's not talking much yet but rather taking it all in and delighting in interests. These days, the favorite read-aloud board books have been

• Kloria Press: We All Believe in One True God; Before the Ending of the Day; Now Rest Beneath Night's Shadow; I am Jesus' Little Lamb
• Very Hungry Caterpillar (video) (we've duct-taped two parts of this book so far
• Blue Hat, Green Hat ("Oops")
• My Gifts From God: Animals; Colors; Sounds; sometimes Opposites
• Baby Loves Gravity (video); Coding (video)

My priorities for Child this school year are:

• Plenty of time outside (~350 hours in 2023 as of this post) (check out last week's post for more detail)
• Physical activity inside and outside (don't make Child sit unless necessary) (and potentially audiobooks for mama in the meantime)
• Socially appropriate interaction reinforcement (all ages, animals, other adults)
• Starting Sunday school in September! (North American Anglican description of the teaching on the fact of baptismal regeneration) (childlike faith entails trusting, incrementally learning/consciously believing the articles of the faith, etc.)

Our weekly routine won't change much:

• Music "instruction" - playing a familiar and a "new" piece each day
• Discipleship - praying the Daily Office with Child, whether very brief Midday Prayer or longer Morning or Evening Prayer
• Reading aloud - ideally from a combination of board/picture books and "grown-up" (family-friendly) books, whatever I happen to be reading, which is usually theological or philosophical these days.

The Maybe-Student

Husband is at heart a philosopher (having contributed to this post and this one). However, he's not yet academically trained as one. Since Child was born, he has been reading through his endless TBR with good results. At this rate, he might finish by age 80 if he doesn't purchase any more . . . If he does start graduate work in philosophy, theology, or eschatology this year or next year, that will slightly shift the amount and foci of reading. So, this year, he is focusing on Galatians commentaries, eschatology, and Greek/Hebrew. He's keeping up knowledge integration via reading at night, discussions with others and me by day.

Are you planning for a unique school year? What does it look like?

Roots of Classical Education

One major focus of this blog is education, specifically methodologies well-fitted for homeschooling. While I have long been interested in the Charlotte Mason method because that is essentially the method used with me when I was growing up, Husband and I are interested in classical education for a number of reasons. Come with me as I explore the roots of the classical education method(s).

How has Education Fit in the History of Christianity?

Briefly, Christians have used education from the beginning as a tool for service and evangelism (see Wright's quote in this post). Hopefully, I'll write another post about that topic to keep this one from becoming too long, but suffice it to say, classical Christian education was well in place by the School Edict of AD 362.

What's the Timeline of Classical Education Specifically?

Classical education has a long history, beginning in "classical" times. Please bear in mind that the sources I found that are easier for the general reader to understand and process are also overwhelmingly slanted toward the idea that classical education is awesome (or similar strongly positive adjective). Based on this source, we can trace several milestones in classical education:

• 400 BC: Aristotle founded a school in Greece for training leaders in virtue, using the concepts of trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and quadrivium (arithmetic, astronomy, music, geometry). Though these Latin terms weren't yet used until AD 500 or thereabouts, the intended outcomes were similar across time: fortitude, justice, prudence, temperance, and others.
• AD 0-200: Greek schools continued; the apostle Paul and other biblical authors were influenced by these philosophical ideas and brought them into their writings. Second-century church fathers writing on how classical schools and Christianity related included Justin Martyr, Origen, and Clement of Alexandria.
• AD 325: the first Council of Nicaea took place. Additional church fathers at this time were educated using the trivium-quadrivium concept and used the skills they learned to clearly think through and express what today are major Christian doctrines that weren't necessarily "visible" or "clear" in the Bible.
• It is assumed that the classical education model was dominant in Western cultures in the next centuries.
• AD 1852-1918: public schools were set up in all of the United States.
• AD 1950: peak enrollment in public schools (80-90%). Progressive education was introduced around this time, which had quite different methodology and assumptions from classical education.
• AD 1970s: Mortimer Adler reacted against the progressive model to develop the Paideia Schools as a secular, classical alternative to public education.
• AD 1980: three parent-founded schools sought to revive the classical model from a Christian perspective.

Two Takes on the Modern Classical Movement

Based on the timeline above, it is safe to say that the "modern" classical movement started around the 1970s. I found two very interesting sources (this one by Susan Wise Bauer, a big name in Christian classical education, and this one by Lisa VanDamme, founder of the VanDamme Academy in California.

Susan Wise Bauer

Let's first look at Susan's conception of a modern classical education model. Key components of such a model are (1) progression through 3 stages (trivium) as the child grows and matures, (2) focus on written and oral language to educate, and (3) recognition of the interrelatedness of all knowledge. 

Relating to point (1), grades 1-4 or thereabouts are spent in the "grammar stage" where the focus is on memorization of poems, stories, concrete or abstract facts, and rules of language (English and Latin, typically). Grades 5-8 or so are spent in the "logic stage" to focus on the abstract as well as the "why" behind facts, fields of knowledge, and the rules of formal logic. Grades 9-12 are spent in the "rhetoric stage" to learn how to express oneself and one's knowledge in an effective way, whether oral or written. Some academic specialization occurs during this stage.

Relating to point (2), the focus on using language rather than video images is meant to force the brain to use more focused attention to learn. I think many people who understand how one learns would agree with this rationale.

Related to point (3), the implication of integrating the quadrivium with a trivium timeline, for Bauer, is that the child cycles through all of recorded history three times throughout a K-12 education, building complexity with each layer. The first grade of each cycle is spent in ancient history, the second in the Middle Ages, the third in the Renaissance and Reformation, and the fourth in modern times (Enlightenment and after).

Overall, Bauer sees classical education as extremely systematic and therefore beneficial to helping students link knowledge together in their heads, developing moral virtue (per Aristotle) along the way.

Lisa VanDamme

VanDamme writes for The Objective Standard, which applies Ayn Rand's objectivist philosophy to other fields of knowledge. Please note: Objectivism is, as Husband puts it, as close to Satanism as one can get without being actually Satanist, because it treats selfishness as a virtue. The title of this particular 2007 article ("The False Promise of Classical Education") clearly indicates the conclusions.

First, the flaws of classical education from a non-classical perspective, based on both objectivism and current theories of how children learn:

• Organizing knowledge non-hierarchically--asking younger children to learn abstractions (e.g., grammar rules explicitly stated) before letting their older selves learn specifics
• Rigidly distinguishing between content and thinking skills about that content
• Insistence on over-integration of knowledge and theories, leading to an exaggerated Dunning-Kruger effect.

VanDamme's biggest issue with classical education as put forth in the modern era relates to her third point, i.e., that its integration of abstract ideas from various fields of knowledge isn't valuable because it's not based on reality that can be perceived (first point--this is not quite accurate, as actually looking at well-implemented classical curricula shows). She points out that four recent approaches (1970s-1980s) to reviving classical education share the same faults. I appreciate that she differentiates these into secular and Christian:

• Mortimer Adler's Great Books Program and Paideia Proposal (secular)
• E. D. Hirsch's Core Knowledge curriculum (secular)
• Wise and Bauer's Well-Trained Mind (Christian background but appealing to many secular homeschoolers)
• Dorothy Sayer's Lost Tools of Learning (Christian)

The article's critique of many Christian classical educators and curricula is correct in that Enlightenment epistemology is commonly used when educating children in a Christian classical setting, specifically related to interpretation of the Bible. This epistemology (system of gaining knowledge) has three components: rationalism, empiricism, and skepticism.

• Rationalism: doubt anything that can possibly be doubted by coming up with scenarios in which the "thing" would be false. (Big names: René Descartes, Gottfried Leibnitz.)
• Empiricism: prioritize knowledge that can be gained by direct measurement of something perceptible to the senses. (Big name: Francis Bacon.)
• Skepticism: criticize any authority regarding belief in knowledge. (Big names: Pierre Bayle, David Hume.)

I would agree that many Christian curricula do reflect an Enlightenment mindset, though primarily in the empiricist strand (not so much the other strand). This is typically combined with evangelicalism, leading to a literalistic interpretation of certain biblical passages that are better seen as figurative or in another literary model (ancient near Eastern literature) not seen today. There is no self-examination of the results of such teachings (e.g., the mode of creation) in light of the greater body of knowledge. As an analogy, a fish in water doesn't realize that it's in water.

However, I would argue that VanDamme utilizes just as much Enlightenment epistemology, if not more, when it comes to her preferred system of teaching and learning. This is not to say that she's wrong, but more to say that her perspective is incomplete.

Is Classical Education (In)compatible with Charlotte Mason?

There are plenty of opinions on either side of this question. As we can see from the below, your answer depends in part on your specific "flavor" of classical education. Sonya Shafer, an eloquent proponent of Charlotte Mason methodology and philosophy, interviewed Karen Glass on a book (Consider This) she wrote on the combination. (On general pros and cons of today's classical education method from a non-Christian perspective, check out this post.)

(Potentially) Incompatible

Several articles seeming to lean toward the incompatibility of the two methods tend to focus more on the differences. Here are my sources (I highly recommend that, if you only read one, read the third--from the Charlotte Mason Poetry site--it does take issue with Karen Glass's book and methodology in researching it, so is worth reading as an additional perspective).

• "The" classical approach is based on highly structured trivium and quadrivium distinctions whereas Mason's method takes a different stance than those that subscribe to a trivium-based cognitive and social development model for childhood.
• Classical approaches tend to focus more on declarative knowledge, whereas Mason integrates life activities (procedural knowledge)
• Classical approaches focus on displaying knowledge in the marketplace of ideas, whereas Mason integrates much of education with being outside in nature and appreciating the creation as an individual in society.
• Blending the trivium-based classical approach with a Charlotte Mason philosophy produces a hybrid diluting the good qualities of each method.

Compatible

Some more articles seem to lean toward the compatibility of a blended approach. This appeals to many homeschoolers; bear in mind that my sources are from an individual homeschooling mother (with potential issues in generalizing to others), a curricular resource website, and Susan Wise Bauer.

• Memory work inherent in the grammar stage of a classical model can work with narration inherent throughout Mason's method
• For one-on-one subjects and formal instruction in writing/grammar (where each child in a family is at a different knowledge level), classical techniques may work better, while for family subjects (where all children can participate at the same level) Mason's approach is smoother but may not teach writing mechanics as well
• The principle of prioritizing literature over visual media (in any classical approach, whether or not based on the trivium) fits extremely well into a more tailored Mason approach
• Mason may be seen as having adapted classical approaches from historical use to her more modern historical context; classical educators today (including Bauer) view themselves as doing the same
• The short-lesson principles of Mason's method can certainly be used in an otherwise trivium-based approach

What are Accessible Classical Education Resources?

If, after reading and considering the content of this post, you are leaning toward using partial or complete classical approaches, here are accessible resources I have read and can recommend to provide thorough descriptions and useful information.

• Sister Miriam Joseph, The Trivium (Roman Catholic perspective, specifically Thomist)
• Laura Bergquist, Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum (also Roman Catholic)
• Susan Wise Bauer & Jessie Wise, The Well-Trained Mind (currently Bauer attends an evangelical church, as far as I can ascertain)
• J. P. Moreland & William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations of a Christian Worldview (philosophical/logic portions which comprise a few of the many chapters)

What other sources have you found helpful?

Great Outdoors Month: Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study

The month of June is Great Outdoors Month, among other things. To me, that connotes the American Dream, pioneers, westward migration in the United States, Little House on the Prairie, Misty of Chincoteague, and the Handbook of Nature Study which informed parts of my childhood. While the American Dream is waning in popularity (here's an example of a horizon-broadening college experience that reflects that), nature study is alive and well in Charlotte Mason circles. Come along with me on a reread through the Handbook. 

Situating the Handbook in a Historical Timeline

Writing, revising, and publishing a textbook of any size can take time. Factoring in the time to research, draft, get feedback, complete revision, typeset, index, and print a book of the Handbook's size, I would not be surprised if it took 2-3 years. Given that timeline, what was happening when Anna was starting and finishing the book?

In 1909:

• Selma Lager was the first woman to receive the literature Nobel Prize
• The NAACP was founded

In 1910:

• The most common form of dementia received its name, Alzheimer('s) disease
• Type 2 diabetes was identified to be based on deficiency of a single chemical, here named insulin
• Boy Scouts of America was founded
• Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) died
• Several strikes, including the Chicago Garment Workers

In 1911:

• Frank Lloyd Wright began construction on his Wisconsin summer home
• Ronald Reagan was born
• Baseball was in full swing (pun intended)

Why was the Handbook Written?

Anna Botsford Comstock, while at Cornell University, wrote the Handbook to help haggard teachers especially in New York State and eventually elsewhere. As the initial section emphasizes, nature study is to serve multiple purposes in a school or farm context—physical health, mental refreshment, increased curiosity, and immediate awareness of the natural objects and organisms that one can see with at most a magnifying glass or binoculars. 

As Comstock emphasized, nature study benefits not only the students but also the teachers. We don't age out of needing to go outside regularly. Nor do we age out of needing to learn about the world around us. (I am passionate about improving the physical and mental health of older adults, so that aspect is near to my heart.)

Is the Handbook Still Useful?

It certainly is! As the 1986 foreword states, the majority of organisms and phenomena described are still around, and easy to find in most areas of the United States. The few that have gone extinct still have entries for historical value. This book is designed for elementary and middle school-level educators and so includes interesting macroscopically observable facts as well as guiding questions about each species or genus with its own entry. From the Foreword:

 "This book is for the most part as valid and helpful today as it was when first written in 1911. After all, dandelions, toads, robins, and constellations have changed little since then! And modern society's concern with the quality of life and the impact of people on soil, water, and wildlife makes this book even more relevant."

Part I - The Teaching of Nature-Study

Parts I already knew or that have been longtime favorites:

• I've owned this book since I was at least in high school (I neglected to check the date on the gift receipt when re-reading it for this post before Child chewed up said receipt), so I had glanced through various entries.
• I knew it had originally been published in 1911 with copyright renewed periodically by divisions of Cornell University Press.
• Favorite features include full- and partial-page plate pictures. These may already have been in the first edition, fleshing out the book to 859 pages plus index.

Parts that were new or particularly interesting to me:

• The Handbook has gone through over 24 editions!
• "Ecology is merely formalized nature study" (p. ix, 1939 preface).
• The preface also noted that "teachers are as a whole untrained in the subject" of nature study (p. xiii).
• Relevant especially for homeschoolers, nature study has distinct intersections with other subjects, including language, drawing, geography, history, arithmetic, gardening, and agriculture.
• Each section starts with "how-to" and general concepts, followed by specific entries for individual species and genera.

I am looking forward to using this book with Child and any potential future siblings.

Part II - Animals

This section has subsections for birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, insects, and invertebrates.

Parts I already knew or that have been longtime favorites:

• The section on game birds, particularly the ones common in my area--wild turkey and ring-necked pheasants. By this point in the year, I may have seen more turkey vultures than turkey.
• The entry on goldfish in the fish section. My siblings went through a brief goldfish-raising phase, and yours truly developed budding biology skills by dissecting each one after it became an ex-goldfish.
• The entry on  spring peepers (Pickering's Hyla or Hyla crucifer). I've seen and heard my share of these tiny frogs, but didn't know their characteristic back marking is a St. Andrew's cross.
• The entry on garter snakes in the reptiles section. One tends to either love or hate snakes; I fall into the former category.
• The entry on wood turtles (Clemmys insculpta), which are longtime neighbors in the river near my house.
• The entry on cotton-tail rabbits in the mammals section. Peter Rabbit and siblings were an apt characterization of this species' temperament.
• The entry (specifically the pictures) on the cat. Even though it was in black and white, the picture of a tabby captivated Child and elicited a full minute of joyous "Ditty! Ditty!"
• The entry on horses. Like most girls in my age range, I went through a pronounced horse phase and still wouldn't mind the opportunity to ride, if it comes up.
• The entry on monarch butterflies in the insects section. I had the privilege of tagging several migrating monarchs in undergrad along with capturing and inspecting several tagalong praying mantises.
• The entry on the black cricket. Crickets were a favorite to observe in my childhood, and notoriously difficult to catch for brief inspection.
• The entry on mosquitoes. These insects enjoy my blood type, unfortunately.
• The full-page display of Florida and East Coast shells. I think every child should have a collection of something growing up, whether that be seashells or something else. Twenty-five kinds are depicted.

Parts that were new or particularly interesting to me:

• Introductory section on how birds fly. I had known something about this, but the practical physics of the explanation is satisfying to mentally translate into technical terms in my own head. Analogies include a handheld fan, jumping down with an open umbrella, pressing down on a vaulting pole, a web, and a rudder.
• Bird songs notated!

• The entry on stickleback (Eucalia inconstans) in the fish section. I've caught many types of fish, but not sticklebacks. "Lilliputian" and "sagacious" are two delicious adjectives that Comstock used to describe this fish species.
• The entry on newts in the amphibians section. I haven't seen too many of these, but the first reference that jumps to mind is, of course, Monty Python.
• The full-page spread on other kinds of snakes, including ribbon, rubber boa, rough green (Opheodrys aestivus, local to me), timber rattler, desert gopher, ring-necked, and the sidewinder.
• Directions for making a tin-can trap for humanely catching small mammals.
• Directions for optimizing cows' milk production by varying the nutritional content of their diet, setting up a clean dairy barn and washing the udders, and preserving milk appropriately (including raw milk consumption from one's own cows or cows whose owner one knows well).
• The diagram showing the structure of a typical index, including scientific and colloquial names for the head and parts (including a surprisingly complex mouth), thorax with sections, and abdomen with components.

• The hummingbird/sphinx moths. I would like to see or hear these some evening--I do know there are hummingbirds in the neighborhood.
• Directions for making one's own ant-nest--the Lubbock nest is designed to lie flat with a "moat" around where the ants are housed.
• Depictions of different spiderweb shapes--funnel, orb, triangle, and irregular.

Part III - Plants

This section has subsections for wildflowers, weeds including first aid for poison ivy, garden flowers, cultivated crop plants, trees, and flowerless plants.

Parts I already knew or that have been longtime favorites:

• Milkweed, common variety, is taking root beautifully in an increasing portion of my back yard each year.
• Goldenrod has grown profligately for decades in the forest preserve near my childhood home, and its simple beauty never ceased to amaze me.
• Thistles are also an unfortunately profligate resident of my yard . . . at least pulling the different kinds gets me and Child outdoor time.
• Burdocks are another resident species I failed to recognize until too late last season, so this year I resume my mission to eradicate them.
• Daffodils grow very briefly and in a small area in my yard--more in my mother's--but they always bring cheer to early spring.
• Bleeding hearts take up more and more space in my yard each year, so that I can offer cuttings to anyone who wants them.
• Wild strawberries, raspberries, and fox grapes grow less than a mile from my house. I'm looking forward to sampling whatever the birds leave.
• Oak trees provide pressable leaves and acorns that as a young child I thoroughly enjoyed picking up and playing creatively with.
• Growing up, my childhood included a Chinese elm in the back yard and weeping willows nearby.
• Botany class in college included an expedition to pick mushrooms. A memorable quote from the professor: "Then you can say, 'No, you idiot! That's a basidiocarp!'"
• Likewise, bracket fungi were and still are a fairly commonly encountered part of my life.
• As a biology major, I studied bacteria in some detail. I am impressed that Comstock includes these profligate microorganisms in her book, given the lack of access to microscopes by schoolchildren in her day.

Parts that were new or particularly interesting to me:

• Dutchman's breeches, which I had heard of before but never thought to see, actually are growing in my back yard this year!
• I had not known that clover could be cultivated for forage!
• The American elm (Ulmus americana) is extinct in some areas and endangered in many others, but was very common in Comstock's time.
• I grew moss gardens in a jar from time to time, but have not yet encountered hair-cap moss (a.k.a. pigeon wheat). These varieties are much taller than the typical moss.

Part IV - Earth and Sky

This section has subsections for brooks, rocks/minerals, soil, magnet, climate/weather, water forms, and sky.

Parts I already knew or that have been longtime favorites:

• Igneous rocks, especially granite, were deposited by glaciers and older volcanoes in areas where I have lived and visited.
• A useful chart on typical worldwide wind directions serves to reinforce the fact of the earth's rotation about its north-south axis.
• Likewise, a constellation chart shows where the most common star groups may be observed, at which latitude, throughout the year.

Parts that were new or particularly interesting to me:

• Quartz is apparently in the top 10(ish) most common rocks in the world.
• There is also a full-page spread on fossils, not discussing ages but merely noting their deposition in any "former age."
• Guest essays on soil conservation, including strip-cropping, are also included.

Hopefully, you can see why I originally titled this blog The Renaissance Biologist. What creatures are most common in your gardening zone?

Reading with Babies . . . and More?

Whether you've had (a) child(ren) of your own or not, if you're reading this post chances are you want to spend more time reading, good books specifically. In this post, I hope to answer some of the most common questions, and a few uncommon ones, about reading + children.

As you may know, I had a baby in 2022. That changed a few things! Parenthood is still very much a work in process, but here is what I've learned from the experience of myself and others.

What are Benefits of Reading to my Baby? (Why do it at all?)

As the saying goes, you can't pour from an empty cup. So, if you have a newborn and are therefore suddenly deprived of unbroken sleep, the use of your second hand (except if baby wearing), and periods of silence for concentration, you need to benefit from what you are doing for your baby in order to be a better parent!

My husband and I have seen three benefits for ourselves, before and after our baby was born.

First, up to a certain age, babies genuinely don't care what reading material you pick. So, until your child is old enough to bring you a book and strongly request you to read it for the 17th time, you are (mostly) free to choose what interests you, or what you need to read anyway.

Second, you hone your ability to speak dramatically and clearly. This is sure to come in handy by the time your child(ren) is/are theater-aged!

Third, if you want to see how your baby will react to different accents or languages, infancy is a great time to practice your pronunciation of German, Greek, or Middle English. A friend of mine visited his goddaughter when she was 6 months old, and got a confused expression from her upon reading aloud a few paragraphs of Chaucer.

Research and experience show benefits for the babies as well (link here). Related to language, a child's language skills are strongly correlated with exposure in earlier life to spoken language. Specific language skills and elements that a baby learns from being read aloud to include: telling different sounds apart, hearing complex vocabulary, varying sentence structure and cadence, and rhyming. Additionally, reading aloud models standard and non-standard communication elements like turn-taking, gesturing, and intonation.

Babies gain non-language benefits from read-aloud too. They bond emotionally with whomever is speaking to them. One interesting other benefit I recently learned about is that attention span progressively improves as well, which is a prerequisite for building other habits (think Charlotte Mason). The rule of thumb is 2-3 minutes (some sources say up to 5) per year of the child's life, of focused attention.

When Should I Start Reading to my Baby?

Like many parents-to-be, I started talking to and reading to my baby before birth. It helped me bond mentally and emotionally, and familiarize my baby with the sound of my voice. After the birth, I would read aloud when baby was awake, and silently during naps. Due to our family work schedules and fatigue, I unfortunately lost consistency in this habit until baby was 6-8 months old (and started to show interest in books).

At this point, it was a mix of high-quality (read: interesting to adults!) board books and whatever I happened to be reading from my own list. More on those books below. Many good-quality research studies (summarized here) support reading out loud to one's children from birth.

How Can I Read After I Have a Baby?

How can you ensure you read for your own edification after the baby is born? I take these ten points of inspiration from Jocko Willink's podcast on the similar topic of keeping up workouts with a newborn:

1. Make it happen whenever you can. I am a creature of habit, but this has become a necessity. So many things I thought I could only accomplish at set times of day or on set days of the week, have been pushed into the crevices of time in a newborn's and now almost-toddler's routine.
2. Abandon thoughts of a set schedule. Same reaction as to the point above. This is harder for some than for others, and I credit my ability to follow this tip to mom brain.
3. Make sure you take the time to sleep and do other necessary life-sustaining things, too. I'm always eating, and will not refuse a nap when the opportunity presents itself!
4. Set up some home spaces with ready reading material. This ensures that you can make progress even if the baby has fallen asleep on your lap, in any chair in the house. It happens.
5. Squeeze in brief periods throughout the day. These can also occur at night, especially in the newborn phase with a first child when you can take naps in daytime to compensate for nighttime sleep interruptions.
6. While your children and family are first priority - and while life with children is (I think) better than life without - you have to stay healthy (mens sana in corpore sano) for them. By reading when they are very young and beyond, you provide intellectual food for them and set a positive example.
7. Accept that you won't be in the best shape of your life. This is actually reversed for some people I know . . . as a case in point, my husband's reading frequency skyrocketed with baby.
8. Tackle the priority of the moment at any given time (sleeping, eating, etc.). This means reading will fall by the wayside during some periods, especially when all the baby does is feed, poop, and cry.
9. Something is better than nothing. Every little bit adds up!
10. Lack of reading makes a habitual reader irritable. Your spouse will tell you to get back to that habit so you're more pleasant to be around. So true!

What Should I Read After I Have a Baby?

Very short answer: whatever you can!

My longer, subdivided answer, has Parent picks and Baby picks. My favorite books for myself after baby arrived were nonfiction related to my current pursuits (Anglicanism, homeschooling, and whatever philosophy I can understand without too much specialized vocabulary). Fiction picks have come from a box of Reader's Digest editions, so far, of 1700s-1900s novels, for when my brain can't handle nonfiction.

Baby picks have gotten to be more fun as the little one has gotten more interested in books. The picture below showcases the Christmas bookshelf, omitting some more fun titles (Veggie Tales devotionals, Quantum Physics for Babies, and Experimenting With Babies) that are nearer to the nursery. The overall principle is to follow Baby's visual and auditory development. So, the very first books will be high-contrast with black-and-white illustrations, particularly faces.

Here's what is featured in the picture below, left to right (most links are to Amazon or Concordia Publishing House):

• Spiro & Chan's Baby Loves Aerospace Engineering, Coding, Gravity, and Thermodynamics!
• Luther & Lukasek's Lord, Keep us Steadfast in Your Word
• Touch and Feel Baby Animals
• Babies in the Forest
• von Hayn & Klages' I am Jesus' Little Lamb
• Rische & Mayer's God Loves Me Dearly
• CPH boxed set of My Gifts from God (opposite, animals, colors, and sounds)
• Boynton's Blue Hat, Green Hat
• C. R. Gibson's Baby Jesus
• McBratney & Jeram's Guess How Much I Love You
• Boynton's Barnyard Dance!
• McMullan & McPhail's If You Were My Bunny
• Stohs' Hush, Little One
• Temple & Braun's God Bless You, Little One

Once we officially have a toddler on our hands, I look forward to revisiting some of my own childhood favorites:

• Berenstain Bears
• Boxcar Children
• Nancy Drew
• Chronicles of Narnia

I hope you enjoyed this post, for yourself, your child(ren), or friends with children. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Homeschool tidbit

Something to keep in mind for those with little ones approaching first grade. Hopefully it'll be me in a few years. :) HT Ellen, via Tony Woodlief!

Overprotection

Or, as the title of the book review so aptly puts it: "Moppets With Helmets." Tony Woodlief critiques the book "A Nation of Wimps" by Hara Estroff Marano (what a mouthful!), who, in addition to speaking against "invasive parenting" in the common "helicopter-mom" sense, also lumps with that group "parents who don't send their children off to sleepaway summer camps...those nutty home-schoolers...women professionals who choose to be stay-at-home moms while their children are young and parents who prefer not to hand their infants over to a daycare center...cellphones, and globalization and American individualism."

In other words, "The problem is that Ms. Marano brings a bazooka to a skeet shoot."

Aside from that unfortunate 800-pound-gorilla-in-the-powder-room episode, the rest of the book, says Woodlief, builds its case excellently via statistics and anecdotes such as this one:

A Connecticut mother tells Ms. Marano that she is appalled by the parents she knows who have sent their 3-year-old "to an occupational therapist two times a week to work on scissor skills – for no discernible reason." But then the woman confesses that after her son's preschool teacher "said something about his fine motor skills," she took him to an occupational therapist "for an evaluation. I'm not proud of it."

Finally, and thankfully, Woodlief comes out in strong favor of homeschoolers:

In the how-things-used-to-be category, it is helpful for us to remember that Teddy Roosevelt, the quintessential American anti-wimp -- he once killed a mountain lion with a knife -- grew up enjoying a close relationship with his parents, including extended family vacations (no summer camp!), home schooling (call the teachers' union!) and close contact even after he left for college (cut the cord, Mrs. Roosevelt!). TR's own children suffered similar "overparenting," yet they went on to be war heroes and successful citizens. American history teems with similar examples.

He homeschools as well, blogging "about parenting and faith."

...My highly educated wife home-schools our four boys, for example, because she can accomplish in three hours what public schools need six to do poorly. Such efficiency gives our sons an extra three hours each day to build forts, go down to the creek in our backyard or give music recitals at a nursing home in town.

However, as statistics and families testify, one doesn't need a degree to parent or homeschool. The Puritans and other early Americans did it for generations before we got our college system rolling properly; look where we are now.

Ooh...theiw poow sewf-esteem!

On A23 of today's WSJ, by Rebecca Wallace-Segall, is a nice, un-PC article praising "thought competition," a.k.a. individual competitions where students compete on their own individual merits, not on teams. Writing from experience (she teaches an "afterschool writing program" in NY), she in effect mourns the fact that kids in "top-notch New York private schools"--expensive, too, obviously--need the creative writing help at all. She blames "[t]heir schools...offshoots of the 'progressive education' movement" that believes that "'thought competition' is treacherous."

Blame the "psychology and pedagogy researchers" who worry that individual competition might hurt the child's self-esteem. A la "The Incredibles," these are the same people encouraging the celebration of mediocrity--"participation" awards, anyone? These schools allow athletic competitions but not academic ones. Rebecca responds: "Is [teamwork] the only admirable achievement?" Mel Levine, UNC professor and childhood-learning expert, agrees that "the impact of the collaborative education movement has been devastating to an entire generation." (Except the homeschoolers!) Predictably, "older members of Generation Y...expect to be immediate heroes and heroines...grade inflation...to be told what a wonderful job they're doing."

Gah! While I am a slightly younger member of GenY, my parents homeschooled me. Now I have the Puritan ethic firmly implanted in my psyche--no entitlement (without reason, of course! :D) for me!