Reading List on the Net {final for 2015}

I promise this, this, is the last of the Reading List on the Net posts for this year. I had said the previous would probably be but this one really is. 

A Feast of a Picnic by Jason Fiedler (It's worth it...)

 It’s a wonderful and dangerous thing to bring the beautiful to center stage and trust that the child really will make it their own...I had to move forward on the trust that there was truth in this educational philosophy that crossed barriers, even cultural ones...In the big picture of things, this little educational project in the south Pacific could be labeled insignificant or a waste of resources.  But what I witnessed in that tiny room with those forty teachers – their smiles, the risks they were willing to take to share their thoughts, their questions, their quiet and contemplative looking at the works of an artist completely unknown to them until that moment, the gratitude they expressed when I told them the paintings were theirs to keep –  all of these things tell me it was worth it.

Isaac Watts on Getting Wisdom, contThis is why I saved this link:

Remember this, that if upon some few superficial acquirements you value, exalt, and swell yourself as though you were a man of learning already, you are thereby building a most unpassable barrier against all improvement; you will lie down and indulge idleness, and rest yourself contented in the midst of deep and shameful ignorance.

The Headmistress pointedly states that every teenage boy needs to read this- and I do agree; so much so that I'm going to paste it somewhere that my own teenage boy can read it- but I was pricked hard when I read it.

Museum 'Bans' Cameras, Asks People to Sketch Artwork to Truly Appreciate It
I shared this on Facebook (as it was shared by one of my friends there as well) but tucked away the link for sharing here. One interesting comment on the link I posted on FB stated that their museum did not allow sketching the artwork. It is a brilliant idea to have patrons sketch the work they see. What a mind gallery one would have after doing this for awhile! At the end of the post is a video. It's just a little over a minute long, but look at the people who are participating in the activity. Don't they look like it is an enjoyable experience?

“In today’s world of mobile phones and media a visit to a museum is often a passive and superficial experience,” they write on their website. “Visitors are easily distracted and do not truly experience beauty, magic and wonder. This is why the Rijksmuseum wants to help visitors discover and appreciate the beauty of art and history through drawing.”

Charles Dickens Had It Right
It would seem to be 'common sense' (which we know isn't common) that holding onto material possessions or attempting to find happiness through the acquisition of material possessions will not equate to happiness and is rather counter productive. Dickens was a great writer whose "perception and investigation of the human psyche is deep, precise, and illuminating, and...he tells us things about ourselves by portraying personality traits and habits that might seem all too familiar" (source) 

Overall, the more materialistic people were, the less likely they were to be satisfied with their lives...There wasn’t a single case where materialism related positively to satisfaction...Then again, it could also be that people who are unhappy with their personal relationships and work lives focus on material possessions as a coping mechanism. After all, as the Ghost of Christmas Past reminded him, Scrooge only became a miserable miser after a lonely childhood and a really bad breakup.

Back Away From the iPhone, Mom and Dad

Christmas time is supposed to be a season for meditation on the Incarnation of Christ. It is also an opportunity for us to propagate that Incarnational reality with friends and family. Ironically—or perhaps deviously—many have the urge to use this season to get their hands on the newest “pocket idol...Of course the solution is not to become anti-technology and embrace a technophobic agenda. The wise approach is one which understands the balance required when engaging with technology. As Plato insisted, the man of moderation is “the man of manly character and wisdom.

Artists Share "Before and After" Evolution of Their Drawing Skills With Years of Practice
More of a visual and hopefully encouragement for those who draw but do not necessarily think they are any good. It takes time to hone the skill. I was impressed with these before and after images. {The comments at the end are telling of the individuals who wrote them.}

Composition a la Charlotte Mason: Writing a Precis
Did I share this already? It seems very familiar. It may be that I read, or started to read it, when it was first published. Also, around the same time it was put up, I was in a educational technology course that pushed the use of Twitter in writing exercises. I'm possibly too stubbornly against using technology such as social media in learning. It is possible, this I know. But...
Anyway, this whole series put out by the Headmistress on composition from a CM perspective is worth reading. {I see the need to take my own advice here.}

PRECIS-WRITING and the making of summaries is not
a mere subject for competitive examinations, but an
Exercise of the utmost possible mental and cultural
value. It provides training in clear thinking, intel-
lectual grasp and insight, orderly construction, and
succinct expression.