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Jane Austen The Novelist
Jane Austen is known as a novelist, but for me she was also an historian. Her novels go deep into detail about how life was at the end of the 18th Century --- for the British landed gentry. The plots within her novels explore how women were, how they thought and their dependence on marriage in order to get some sort of social standing and economic security. Jane questions the ‘sensibility’ of this Century and her use if biting irony, along with her realism, humour and social commentary, have earned her acclaim among critics, scholars and popular audiences. Her novels are part “of the transition to 19th Century literary realism.”
By Ruth Elizabeth Stiff5 years ago in Education
Chanute Field
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker has flown. Lord to God I wish it was not true, but now I have to tell his story. After all, he left me $20,000. And a stamp collection, a Boy Scout Handbook from the 1930s, a metal-encased pocket bible from WWII, and a little black book that looks its age -- eighty years, if it was eighteen years younger than he.
By Lise Erdrich5 years ago in Education
The Golden Thread
It was the middle of March in North Carolina and pine cones were tightly wound with expectation that the spring equinox would usher in some much needed Sun to aggregate the flora and fauna that grace the landscape with complexions of green only the inhabitants could fathom. The local species, both existing and emerging, await the spillage of colour onto the ground, and thusly overhead, and so forth all around as the lush nature will have added warmth to the woods by the time spring spirals into summer. Like spring cleaning, this rolling out of the leaves make it a chore to celebrate the simultaneous endings and new beginnings happening during the juxtaposition of this season, even if it were the pre-existing notions of Solace's 13th birthday. It was Wednesday and all seemed the same when the Matriarch of Solace's immediate family descended the spiral staircase of their mystical home with a gift in one hand and cigarette in the other, she typically did not practice but the thought of falling behind on the bills, a missed menstrual and only being able to afford to give her son the gift she swore to her father that she would give to Solace on his 13th birthday made for a haphazard display of emotions that could only be met with silence. There he was, fully dressed and awaiting breakfast followed by a sequence of events that would commemorate yet another revolution around the Sun. He was astute in nature, gifted for his age and well read to be an only child, due in part because he was homeschooled by the scholars in his family and spent summers being mentored by the family linguist, the family florist, the family neurologist and this summer he was due to meet his Aunt Carole, she was the family member most fluent in bookkeeping. Although, aside from beekeeping, it was uncertain how he would keep busy an entire season until summer vacation reconvened. His mother sat this matte black box with gold trim in front of him and wished him well on this day where his pubescence as a young man has made her so proud yet she cannot spare the showcase of emotions. She leaves him with the box and heads for the outdoor gazebo, a new routine she has picked up since the holidays. His eyes would follow her anytime she maneuvered out of his presence without a word from him. He seemingly manages to redirect his attention back to this box, daunting the lack of presentation to wonder what could be inside. There was no cake, no candles, only the resounding silence right before making a wish, no flame to extinguish and no smell of cooling candle wax mingling with icing. One of his hands managed to slip from his knee to initiate contact with the box; the other hand naturally meeting the box with curiosity. He would remove the one-time golden seal that ensured the box was securely fastened and opened only by the recipient to find a card made of pure gold implanted into the velvet fabric. Now that the card was dislodged from the cardholder of a box, it read: 'Freeman Library' but what would he do with a library card when he has the liberty to read from his expansive home library in which he has made a successful dent, purchase books online, or at the very least, anticipate any of the many books sent in the mail year-round at the expense of generous relatives that "want nothing but the best" for him? Solace had an idea. He would fully immerse himself in apiology and ecology to curb, and account for, the lack of bees that did not make it to their farm last year to produce enough hives for harvesting the honey that would financially cushion their family until his mother's divorce from his father were final. He had become observatory throughout the legal process but, nonetheless, aware of the legal concept of marriage, or divorce for that matter.
By Sha'ron Anderson5 years ago in Education
The Chinese Zodiac
Hello everybody! This is the transcript for the intro episode to my podcast We're all Stories. I hope you like it! First of all, Happy lunar new year everyone!! In honour of the holiday I am going to share with you the story behind the Chinese zodiac. There are many versions of this story. I go with my favourite version but I'll flesh in with some details from other versions here and there. Enjoy!
By Ravenswing5 years ago in Education
Made-Up Words
A constructed language, when its foundation is cracked and its structure weak, is like the Las Vegas Eiffel Tower in the face of the Statue of Liberty, or the language the made-up one is based off of, even subconsciously. Not one Eiffel Tower to another, of course, because that would defeat the purpose of it being a conlang, as it were; it's made-up, and despite its clear flaws and inspiration from another monument, it is its own good ol' college try. Which is quite beautiful, at least by intention. In fact, if accidental mimicry in one instantaneous creation of another centuries-long graceful mess is not psychologically required fidelity, I'm not sure what is.
By Juniper Washington6 years ago in Education
An Early History of Mathematics
In the Greek tradition, mathematics was portrayed as having originated within the studies of early Egyptian philosophers. Although mathematics was more of an extrapolation from the other natural sciences which were based in a reality with which one could individually react, it developed its own internal cosmos. In “ Making Modern Science: A Historical Survey,” by Peter J. Bowler and Iwan Rhys Morus, “Philosophers talked of experiment and of mathematics as providing new tools and even a new language that could be used to understand nature” (Bowler and Morus, 25). Mathematics was a method of reformatting knowledge about the physical world so that it could be manipulated into providing extensive information into the unknown. Despite the conviction the Greek philosophers had about the origins of the field of mathematical inquiry, discrepancies arose. In “The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science,” by Arun Bala, “He [Historian Colin Ronan] counters the prevalent Greek view that their mathematics began in Egypt” (Bala, 17). Greek philosophers and mathematicians held this belief, excited by having the exotic terrain as the remote source of their area of study.
By Sabine Lucile Scott6 years ago in Education
Why Study Literature?
Misconceptions about Studying Literature One of the popular misconceptions about studying literature in school is the concept of ‘the right answer’. You have probably had teachers who have tried to teach one reading of a literary text as though it were the gospel truth, whilst others who proclaim that ‘there are no wrong answers in studying literature’. Both of these viewpoints are unhelpful.
By Neil Pritchard6 years ago in Education
Then and Now
Good Morning, 2019!!! And good morning (or afternoon) to everyone who is taking the time to read this. I am a 63-year-old man named Maurice. I am also a schoolteacher who will soon be retired from this business. I have been in classrooms as a professional educator since September of 1978. Yes, that is a loooooooong time. There are times when I wake up in the morning and ask myself a serious question after I have gotten in my car to go to work.
By Maurice Bernier7 years ago in Education
What Are Montessori Schools?
Your kids are a huge investment. You take care of them for at least 18 years and hope later on down the road they will be able to take care of you as well. You spend all this time and money trying to make their lives the best they can be. And there are so many choices to make at every crossroad. If you’re religious do you baptize them? In today’s culture, you may even choose to let them choose their own gender. And when it comes to education, there’s even more options. Do you send them preschool and kindergarten? Do you homeschool? There are many reasons why people homeschoool their children, after all. If they go to school, will it be public or private? It’s hard to decide what type of education program to enroll your children in. But there is an option you might not be familiar with. It’s called the Montessori Method, and it’s taught at Montessori schools.
By Lindsay Parks7 years ago in Education
