Reading List on the Net {11.20.15}

Yikes! Another long reading list! You might recall that it's actually a continuation from the previous. I'm not going to split this one up though. I don't think I will get another list up before the New Year {but I've been wrong before}. 

First and foremost because this is something very relevant for today: What ISIS Really Wants
This article is long. You will need time to sit, read, and then digest what you've read. It is important. There is so much I personally have been in the dark about what ISIS really is. There is a video to watch {just over 5 minutes} about the supposed reaction of ISIS to this article. 

We have misunderstood the nature of the Islamic State in at least two ways. First, we tend to see jihadism as monolithic, and to apply the logic of al‑Qaeda to an organization that has decisively eclipsed it. We are misled in a second way, by a well-intentioned but dishonest campaign to deny the Islamic State’s medieval religious nature.

Relationships are tricky but as you probably already know, kindness and generosity go a long way to help them stay intact. This article is in Business Finder, which at first I thought an odd location, but business is indeed based on relationships.

Kindness...glues couples together. 

There are two ways to think about kindness. You can think about it as a fixed trait: either you have it or you don’t. Or you could think of kindness as a muscle. In some people, that muscle is naturally stronger than in others, but it can grow stronger in everyone with exercise. Masters tend to think about kindness as a muscle. They know that they have to exercise it to keep it in shape. They know, in other words, that a good relationship requires sustained hard work. 

While not something to read, as in an article, it is a list of books to read. I found this list while researching educational philosophies. It is not precisely what I was looking for when I googled but it has given me some more books that I may like to look up at some point.

Do Hard Things. This post is a bit difficult to read, or apply. Both. Or maybe it's just me. When we started the path to homeschooling it was because the challenge was not there for the kids. And then it got tough. It still is tough. I'm reminded of Brandy's post awhile back on homeschooling. These are two posts that I really really need to read {and apply}. Over and over.

Who wants our days to be hard? If there is a secret that can make it easy, who wouldn’t want that?! But we are called to be wise and discerning. I know that just because something sounds good and appeals to me doesn't mean that it's true. One way I know to test an idea is to look at other parts of the world and ask myself whether this idea fits what I know to be true. Are there other situations where we get to experience wonder-filled days, joyful times where our kids and ourselves are reaching our goals and desires? Well, yes. And no.

Why aren't students today proficient in writing? I want the writing book that this article bases it's findings. Fortunately it is on Archive.org! Here are the three reasons students aren't proficient, but go read the article. And don't skim. *wink* {isn't that painting beautiful??}

1. They don't read high quality literature.
2. They skim.
3. They don't memorize.

Another {wonderful} post by Sarah at CME Retreat blog. This time it is about fiction and its place in education and our lives. 

I propose that fiction has a beautiful role in education that cannot be filled with any other kind of writing. Without discounting the importance of math, science, history, language, etc., there are things that fiction writing does better, faster, and with more elegance and unity than any other kind of teaching can accomplish. 

Something a little light...


To our health: Death Begins in the Colon
Really, it is simply all about that. What is the purpose of the intestinal tract and colon? What kinds of issues start in those areas? What's to be done?

• What's pizza made of? White flour and cheese. White flour and water is used to make wallpaper paste. And cheese (casein), at one time, was the primary ingredient in Elmer's Glue (thus Elmer's picture on the front). Ergo, when you eat pizza, you're eating wallpaper paste and Elmer's Glue -- a real stick to your "ribs" kind of meal. Is it any wonder it doesn't pass through your colon cleanly and easily?

Your intestinal tract is the source of all nutrient access to your body. If it isn't working properly, you have two major problems. First, you have a hard time digesting food--breaking it down sufficiently so that your body can use it. And then, even if you can digest it properly, if the intestinal wall is covered with hardened mucous and/or colonies of hostile bacteria, you'll end up absorbing only a fraction of the nutritional value of the food you eat.

The important point to remember here is that you can't even begin to cleanse and repair the other systems in the body until you clean out the colon so that the toxic material will have a path out of the body. 

Others worth reading, too. I just didn't leave any personal comments.

Conference Lessons, Class II, by K.M. Claxton {Education related}
Volume 26, no. 8, August 1915, pgs. 569-573

For this group, I had 17 children, varying from the ages of 8 to 11. The lessons chosen by the Committee were: General History (30 minutes), Picture Talk (25 minutes), Natural History (25 minutes), and Map Questions (10 minutes).

How writing affects your brain.

As Annie Murphy Paul explained her fantastic March 2012 essay Your Brain on Fiction, “while metaphors like ‘The singer had a velvet voice’ and ‘He had leathery hands’ roused the sensory cortex, phrases matched for meaning, like ‘The singer had a pleasing voice’ and ‘He had strong hands’ did not.”

Why study cursive in the digital age?

Even now when I talk to undergraduate students, I ask them how do you prepare for a particular test or exam, and they say that they'll often write out their notes or rewrite their notes out, because there's some kind of connection with using your hands to form those letters. It cements it in your mind a lot better. 

At School with Charlotte: Examining Underlying Assumptions

Do you know why it is so frustrating to discuss education with those who are big fans of the industrial school system and rave about ideas like “socialization”? It’s because, when all of the dust settles, the conflicts run deeper than we ever imagine at the outset — all the way to our basic catechetical studies: who is man and what are his purposes?

Those Slouching Beasts: An Open Letter to Educators

Despite the safeguards already in place for helping students succeed at colleges and universities (mandatory attendance reporting! horrendous penalties for not turning in mid term grades in a 12 hour window! imminent arrest for not submitting notice in triplicate to advisors, parents, caretakers, employers, and financial aid for failing students – thrice weekly!),there seems to be a general trend that is in turn creating a new bureaucracy composed of what I call “Helicopter Administrators” – and they’re taking over campuses across the nation.

Internet of Things Devices to Grow 30% in 2016

Approximately 4 billion of those Internet-connected things will be used by consumers in 2016 and about 13.5 billion will be for consumer use in 2020, according to the company. That's up from just over 3 billion in 2015 and about 2.28 billion in 2014.