It's summer!
0 views
Skip to first unread message
Michael L. Umphrey
Jul 20, 2009, 10:26:40 PM7/20/09
to Montana Heritage Project Group
Art Ortenberg called me this morning. He'd spent an hour on the Project
website and said he was pleased with how we handled "all that had
happened." He asked how the Project was going. He was quite gracious
and so was I. The main thing on his mind was that he had written a book
about Liz, and he said the Heritage Project was one of the most
important things they had done, and he wanted to send a copy.
It was a good thing that they did. I'm still quite confident the basic principles will become central to schooling in the future, for at least a sizable part of the population, though we're not there yet and are still drifting the wrong way. I've been playing around with a few thousand English teachers, but I don't think it's working yet.
I do need to get in touch with Renee. Does anyone have reasonably recent contact information?
It was a good thing that they did. I'm still quite confident the basic principles will become central to schooling in the future, for at least a sizable part of the population, though we're not there yet and are still drifting the wrong way. I've been playing around with a few thousand English teachers, but I don't think it's working yet.
I do need to get in touch with Renee. Does anyone have reasonably recent contact information?
--
Michael L. Umphrey
120 Arrow Street
P.O. Box 546
Saint Ignatius, MT 59865
(406) 370-4369 (cell)
(406) 883-6351 (School District 23)
(406) 745-3305 (Home)
(406) 745-2757 (fax)
The Power of Community-Centered Education
http://www.montanaheritageproject.org/index.php/MichaelUmphrey
Jeff Gruber
Jul 21, 2009, 12:38:51 AM7/21/09
to montana...@googlegroups.com
Interesting. I've been wondering about Art, and a lot of things. I haven't heard about the book - I'll look for it when it comes out.
What have you been up to? I've been painting and drilling a well. Summer's about over and still no lawn so I'm beginning to feel stressed. Not a good way to enter the school year. We did just get back from getting two gallons of huckleberries. Another good year it seems. Emma collected intersting and oddly shaped leaves in her bucket. Bailey shadowed me and high graded the good patches.
I haven't read much this summer. During that class in Billings I read a Tom Clancy novel and decided it was wasted time when I was done.
I'll attach a couple of links of articles I thought might interest you.
http://dailyinterlake.com/articles/2009/07/11/opinion/columns/columns01.txt
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hwILkN6M43ElH1UydmDBmsNvMQhgD99EC8L81
We had a forest fire near town yesterday - I wondered if your treating blisters and heat stroke yet?
Jeff
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:26:40 -0600
From: mlum...@flatheadreservation.org
To: montana...@googlegroups.com
Subject: It's summer!
What have you been up to? I've been painting and drilling a well. Summer's about over and still no lawn so I'm beginning to feel stressed. Not a good way to enter the school year. We did just get back from getting two gallons of huckleberries. Another good year it seems. Emma collected intersting and oddly shaped leaves in her bucket. Bailey shadowed me and high graded the good patches.
I haven't read much this summer. During that class in Billings I read a Tom Clancy novel and decided it was wasted time when I was done.
I'll attach a couple of links of articles I thought might interest you.
http://dailyinterlake.com/articles/2009/07/11/opinion/columns/columns01.txt
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hwILkN6M43ElH1UydmDBmsNvMQhgD99EC8L81
We had a forest fire near town yesterday - I wondered if your treating blisters and heat stroke yet?
Jeff
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:26:40 -0600
From: mlum...@flatheadreservation.org
To: montana...@googlegroups.com
Subject: It's summer!
Paul & Mary Sullivan
Jul 21, 2009, 1:37:56 AM7/21/09
to montana...@googlegroups.com
It was great to see your name (and Jeff's too) come up on my email! I miss the Project and the wonderful times we all had together. Renee's cell is (406) 949 - 3126.
Michael L. Umphrey
Jul 21, 2009, 2:22:46 AM7/21/09
to montana...@googlegroups.com
I'm going huckleberrying with Gwen and her kids Wednesday. It'll be a
rush since I have to get back for a medical appointment, which have
been keeping me too busy to go out on fires either. Just as well. I'm
trying to get time to think.
I'd actually read the Miele piece--it got reprinted on some national website, which happens with a fair amount of his stuff. It was good though entirely too optimistic. Things are much darker than he suggests.
The Bakken piece may have been too optimistic too. We can't use oil any more. Even domestic oil causes a carbon footprint. We just need to sit in the dark and be thankful we were rescued from advanced capitalism. I'm wondering if I should be stockpiling meds, since I have a feeling old diabetics with bad attitudes will be at the top of the cost-saving list in Obamacare.
Miele is interesting, because the problem he's sensing is a natural consequence of modernism--the Enlightenment Project--and the writers he's citing as the old classics are mostly writers who contributed to the problem he's sensing. At least he's beginning to sense that things have gone off the rails, but he's not yet seeing what happened or where to look for a way forward.
The two writers who've done the best work at laying out the problem are, I think, Alasdair MacIntyre and Michael Polanyi. (If you follow that link you'll see that, although it has a good introduction to Polanyi, it starts talking about a new book that I think you would like: Shop Class as Soul Craft, which is getting a lot of buzz among educators by arguing that we've badly underestimated the value of work other than school work)
Neither wrote novels and neither is especially easy to read, but both argued in their different ways that there was a profound mistake at the heart of the Enlightenment, having to do with trusting only knowledge that could be rationally demonstrated. This led to an unwarranted split between "fact" and "value" with value losing out. This led to a turning away from religion and tradition, even though, both argue, rational inquiry is only possible within a tradition that precedes the inquiry. The radical skepticism at the heart of modernity leads to thinkers asking ever more elementary questions, like Hume--Who am I? What do I know?--and finding only unsatisfactory answers. It leads to nihilism. The loss of serious interest in literature, or the humanities in general, is one of the consequences.
Both argue that belief precedes knowledge, necessarily, and that we can know things we cannot say. I've been spending quite a lot of time "communicating" with English teachers across the nation, and in general I think it's safe to say that any commitment to literature is waning, and most are content to teach "reading" and there's little resistance to the push for "21st Century Skills" which strip all meaningful content out of the curriculum and leave only workplace skills requested by our masters--Adobe, Intel, Microsoft--whose logos now appear on the new curriculum map sent out by the National Council of Teachers of English.
So I think Miele is right, but the trouble is more fundamental than what he describes.
I was working on what I hoped would be a quick book I hoped to have done by now that deals with a little of this, but when I got to the point where I would make suggestions, I couldn't think of any that involve public education. The schools have pretty formally announced their mission is to teach basic skills and that they have nothing to teach about any higher realities, if there are any higher realities.
So that's fine. My question is, where does the old humanizing education happen? Most kids don't go to church. School no longer talks about anything more ennobling than getting a better job than your neighbor. History is taught mainly as a triumph of modernity over tradition, which ends up being the triumph of nihilism over belief. Movies and music and video games are the only storytellers left that many kids hear.
So I'd say the canary is dead and stuffed, perhaps on Arnie Duncan's desk, at least as far as the mass culture goes.
Oddly, I was writing about narrative intelligence when Art called, and I was thinking about how to teach it and what I thought was sometimes going on in the Heritage Project. This is what I had just written: "Young people who have seen complicated projects through to completion, working side by side with an adult who possesses powerful narrative intelligence, are blessed."
That's a little story that makes me laugh.
I've been reading things to get ready for an AP class which is, so far, sort of an anachronism. The College Board always includes some premodern work on the tests, and the tests have remained mostly uncorrupted, with about a 30% pass rate. That gives me some leverage with at least that small population. So this summer they're reading Tale of Two Cities and contemplating the French Revolution and when school starts we'll move on to Crime and Punishment, Emma and such. I'm trying to decide whether to push a big local research project before the new principal knows where he is.
Okay, I'm back. I just went to an ambulance call with five patients. Real work. I think everyone will be okay. Now it's bed time.
I'd actually read the Miele piece--it got reprinted on some national website, which happens with a fair amount of his stuff. It was good though entirely too optimistic. Things are much darker than he suggests.
The Bakken piece may have been too optimistic too. We can't use oil any more. Even domestic oil causes a carbon footprint. We just need to sit in the dark and be thankful we were rescued from advanced capitalism. I'm wondering if I should be stockpiling meds, since I have a feeling old diabetics with bad attitudes will be at the top of the cost-saving list in Obamacare.
Miele is interesting, because the problem he's sensing is a natural consequence of modernism--the Enlightenment Project--and the writers he's citing as the old classics are mostly writers who contributed to the problem he's sensing. At least he's beginning to sense that things have gone off the rails, but he's not yet seeing what happened or where to look for a way forward.
The two writers who've done the best work at laying out the problem are, I think, Alasdair MacIntyre and Michael Polanyi. (If you follow that link you'll see that, although it has a good introduction to Polanyi, it starts talking about a new book that I think you would like: Shop Class as Soul Craft, which is getting a lot of buzz among educators by arguing that we've badly underestimated the value of work other than school work)
Neither wrote novels and neither is especially easy to read, but both argued in their different ways that there was a profound mistake at the heart of the Enlightenment, having to do with trusting only knowledge that could be rationally demonstrated. This led to an unwarranted split between "fact" and "value" with value losing out. This led to a turning away from religion and tradition, even though, both argue, rational inquiry is only possible within a tradition that precedes the inquiry. The radical skepticism at the heart of modernity leads to thinkers asking ever more elementary questions, like Hume--Who am I? What do I know?--and finding only unsatisfactory answers. It leads to nihilism. The loss of serious interest in literature, or the humanities in general, is one of the consequences.
Both argue that belief precedes knowledge, necessarily, and that we can know things we cannot say. I've been spending quite a lot of time "communicating" with English teachers across the nation, and in general I think it's safe to say that any commitment to literature is waning, and most are content to teach "reading" and there's little resistance to the push for "21st Century Skills" which strip all meaningful content out of the curriculum and leave only workplace skills requested by our masters--Adobe, Intel, Microsoft--whose logos now appear on the new curriculum map sent out by the National Council of Teachers of English.
So I think Miele is right, but the trouble is more fundamental than what he describes.
I was working on what I hoped would be a quick book I hoped to have done by now that deals with a little of this, but when I got to the point where I would make suggestions, I couldn't think of any that involve public education. The schools have pretty formally announced their mission is to teach basic skills and that they have nothing to teach about any higher realities, if there are any higher realities.
So that's fine. My question is, where does the old humanizing education happen? Most kids don't go to church. School no longer talks about anything more ennobling than getting a better job than your neighbor. History is taught mainly as a triumph of modernity over tradition, which ends up being the triumph of nihilism over belief. Movies and music and video games are the only storytellers left that many kids hear.
So I'd say the canary is dead and stuffed, perhaps on Arnie Duncan's desk, at least as far as the mass culture goes.
Oddly, I was writing about narrative intelligence when Art called, and I was thinking about how to teach it and what I thought was sometimes going on in the Heritage Project. This is what I had just written: "Young people who have seen complicated projects through to completion, working side by side with an adult who possesses powerful narrative intelligence, are blessed."
That's a little story that makes me laugh.
I've been reading things to get ready for an AP class which is, so far, sort of an anachronism. The College Board always includes some premodern work on the tests, and the tests have remained mostly uncorrupted, with about a 30% pass rate. That gives me some leverage with at least that small population. So this summer they're reading Tale of Two Cities and contemplating the French Revolution and when school starts we'll move on to Crime and Punishment, Emma and such. I'm trying to decide whether to push a big local research project before the new principal knows where he is.
Okay, I'm back. I just went to an ambulance call with five patients. Real work. I think everyone will be okay. Now it's bed time.
Michael L. Umphrey
Jul 21, 2009, 2:25:44 AM7/21/09
to montana...@googlegroups.com
Oh, I forgot to say that I'm pretty sure the book won't be published.
I'm guessing Art will just have it printed and given to whomever he
decides. If anyone wants a copy, I'd say write to the Foundation and
ask him to send you one, or send me your street address and I'll
forward it to him, though a personal contact might be more effective.
Michael L. Umphrey
Jul 21, 2009, 2:27:18 AM7/21/09
to montana...@googlegroups.com
Thanks, Mary. I'll try that if she doesn't answer any of the messages I
sent to all sorts of places.
I miss the Project too. The deeper I get into things the more certain I am it's an important approach, though awful hard to sustain without a support structure.
I miss the Project too. The deeper I get into things the more certain I am it's an important approach, though awful hard to sustain without a support structure.
sz...@greatfallscentral.org
Jul 23, 2009, 10:33:45 PM7/23/09
to montana...@googlegroups.com
Thanks for the levity--for taking the time to write.
Just chasing 3 wee ones. Pax (7 months) went with me to Bozeman to finish my
Masters this summer. Off to PA for 2 weeks with the in-laws and to try to plan
some in-service that my staff will find inspiring. Michael's e-mail
should help
:)...pretty sure they wouldn't understand, though.
I really miss you all.
Sarah
Quoting "Michael L. Umphrey" <mlum...@flatheadreservation.org>:
> I'm going huckleberrying with Gwen and her kids Wednesday. It'll
> be a rush since I have to get back for a medical appointment, which
> have been keeping me too busy to go out on fires either. Just as
> well. I'm trying to get time to think.
>
> I'd actually read the Miele piece--it got reprinted on some national
> website, which happens with a fair amount of his stuff. It was good
> though entirely too optimistic. Things are much darker than he
> suggests.
>
> The Bakken piece may have been too optimistic too. We can't use oil
> any more. Even domestic oil causes a carbon footprint. We just need
> to sit in the dark and be thankful we were rescued from advanced
> capitalism. I'm wondering if I should be stockpiling meds, since I
> have a feeling old diabetics with bad attitudes will be at the top of
> the cost-saving list in Obamacare.
>
> Miele is interesting, because the problem he's sensing is a natural
> consequence of modernism--the Enlightenment Project--and the writers
> he's citing as the old classics are mostly writers who contributed to
> the problem he's sensing. At least he's beginning to sense that things
> have gone off the rails, but he's not yet seeing what happened or
> where to look for a way forward.
>
> The two writers who've done the best work at laying out the problem
> are, I think, Alasdair MacIntyre and Michael Polanyi[1]. (If you
> /Tale of Two Cities/ and contemplating the French Revolution and when
> school starts we'll move on to /Crime and Punishment, Emma/ and such.
> http://www.montanaheritageproject.org/index.php/MichaelUmphrey[3]
> >
>
>
> Links:
> ------
> [1] http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/?p=4519
> [2]
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578866502?ie=UTF8&tag=theheritageproje&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1578866502
> [3]
> http://www.montanaheritageproject.org/index.php/MichaelUmphrey/index
>
Just chasing 3 wee ones. Pax (7 months) went with me to Bozeman to finish my
Masters this summer. Off to PA for 2 weeks with the in-laws and to try to plan
some in-service that my staff will find inspiring. Michael's e-mail
should help
:)...pretty sure they wouldn't understand, though.
I really miss you all.
Sarah
Quoting "Michael L. Umphrey" <mlum...@flatheadreservation.org>:
> I'm going huckleberrying with Gwen and her kids Wednesday. It'll
> be a rush since I have to get back for a medical appointment, which
> have been keeping me too busy to go out on fires either. Just as
> well. I'm trying to get time to think.
>
> I'd actually read the Miele piece--it got reprinted on some national
> website, which happens with a fair amount of his stuff. It was good
> though entirely too optimistic. Things are much darker than he
> suggests.
>
> The Bakken piece may have been too optimistic too. We can't use oil
> any more. Even domestic oil causes a carbon footprint. We just need
> to sit in the dark and be thankful we were rescued from advanced
> capitalism. I'm wondering if I should be stockpiling meds, since I
> have a feeling old diabetics with bad attitudes will be at the top of
> the cost-saving list in Obamacare.
>
> Miele is interesting, because the problem he's sensing is a natural
> consequence of modernism--the Enlightenment Project--and the writers
> he's citing as the old classics are mostly writers who contributed to
> the problem he's sensing. At least he's beginning to sense that things
> have gone off the rails, but he's not yet seeing what happened or
> where to look for a way forward.
>
> The two writers who've done the best work at laying out the problem
> follow that link you'll see that, although it has a good introduction
> to Polanyi, it starts talking about a new book that I think you would
> like: /Shop Class as Soul Craft/, which is getting a lot of buzz
> to Polanyi, it starts talking about a new book that I think you would
> school starts we'll move on to /Crime and Punishment, Emma/ and such.
> I'm trying to decide whether to push a big local research project
> before the new principal knows where he is.
>
> Okay, I'm back. I just went to an ambulance call with five patients.
> Real work. I think everyone will be okay. Now it's bed time.
>
> Jeff Gruber wrote: Interesting. I've been wondering about Art, and
> a lot of things. I haven't heard about the book - I'll look for it
> when it comes out.
>
> What have you been up to? I've been painting and drilling a well.
> Summer's about over and still no lawn so I'm beginning to feel
> stressed. Not a good way to enter the school year. We did just get
> back from getting two gallons of huckleberries. Another good year it
> seems. Emma collected intersting and oddly shaped leaves in her
> bucket. Bailey shadowed me and high graded the good patches.
>
> I haven't read much this summer. During that class in Billings I
> read a Tom Clancy novel and decided it was wasted time when I was
> done.
>
> I'll attach a couple of links of articles I thought might interest
> you.
>
> http://dailyinterlake.com/articles/2009/07/11/opinion/columns/columns01.txt
>
> http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hwILkN6M43ElH1UydmDBmsNvMQhgD99EC8L81
>
> We had a forest fire near town yesterday - I wondered if your
> treating blisters and heat stroke yet?
>
> Jeff
>
> -------------------------
> before the new principal knows where he is.
>
> Okay, I'm back. I just went to an ambulance call with five patients.
> Real work. I think everyone will be okay. Now it's bed time.
>
> Jeff Gruber wrote: Interesting. I've been wondering about Art, and
> a lot of things. I haven't heard about the book - I'll look for it
> when it comes out.
>
> What have you been up to? I've been painting and drilling a well.
> Summer's about over and still no lawn so I'm beginning to feel
> stressed. Not a good way to enter the school year. We did just get
> back from getting two gallons of huckleberries. Another good year it
> seems. Emma collected intersting and oddly shaped leaves in her
> bucket. Bailey shadowed me and high graded the good patches.
>
> I haven't read much this summer. During that class in Billings I
> read a Tom Clancy novel and decided it was wasted time when I was
> done.
>
> I'll attach a couple of links of articles I thought might interest
> you.
>
> http://dailyinterlake.com/articles/2009/07/11/opinion/columns/columns01.txt
>
> http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hwILkN6M43ElH1UydmDBmsNvMQhgD99EC8L81
>
> We had a forest fire near town yesterday - I wondered if your
> treating blisters and heat stroke yet?
>
> Jeff
>
> http://www.montanaheritageproject.org/index.php/MichaelUmphrey
>
> --
>
> Michael L. Umphrey
> 120 Arrow Street
> P.O. Box 546
> Saint Ignatius, MT 59865
>
> (406) 370-4369 (cell)
> (406) 883-6351 (School District 23)
> (406) 745-3305 (Home)
> (406) 745-2757 (fax)
>
> The Power of Community-Centered Education[2]
>
> --
>
> Michael L. Umphrey
> 120 Arrow Street
> P.O. Box 546
> Saint Ignatius, MT 59865
>
> (406) 370-4369 (cell)
> (406) 883-6351 (School District 23)
> (406) 745-3305 (Home)
> (406) 745-2757 (fax)
>
> http://www.montanaheritageproject.org/index.php/MichaelUmphrey[3]
> >
>
>
> Links:
> ------
> [1] http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/?p=4519
> [2]
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578866502?ie=UTF8&tag=theheritageproje&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1578866502
> [3]
> http://www.montanaheritageproject.org/index.php/MichaelUmphrey/index
>
Renee Rasmussen
Jul 24, 2009, 2:07:14 PM7/24/09
to montana...@googlegroups.com
Finally: I get time to reply. It's Friday and I came to work today. Everyone else works 4 10s, so they all have Friday off. It's my day to think. These are the days I do real work.
Renee
Renee Rasmussen
Superintendent
> Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:33:45 -0700
> From: sz...@greatfallscentral.org
> To: montana...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: It's summer!
Mike: I'm so very glad that I can quit thinking about how to get teachers/kids/staff to think. As long as we're all about basic skills now, I can just sit here and shuffle paper. That will be a relief. (Until I get bored --I give it a couple of weeks--and lose my mind).
I read a book when I was in high school by Franky Schaffer, "Addicted to Mediocrity" It was about Christians and their approach to what is/was art and their willingness to accept less than the best as long as there was a Christian symbol--a cross for instance--on the artwork.
I think about his premise often. We are all addicted to mediocrity. Mediocrity is so easy. As long as I get my pay check, can play on the weekend, buy a few toys, drink beer, travel a little, watch better and better TV and not argue too much with the wife or kids, then my life is fine. Who strives? Who becomes better? Who pushes themselves? In this society isn't that the role that's left to the professional athlete? Don't we watch football players every Sunday and Monday on TV and the words excellence, pushing, striving are used for them?
I guess that trying to be the best is now a spectator sport. (Kind of like Rome and the gladiators and the Coliseum I think).
Where does that leave me and my career? Where does that leave my integrity? My beliefs? I'm not a football player. I can't be excellent physically.
Where does that leave me and my career? Where does that leave my integrity? My beliefs? I'm not a football player. I can't be excellent physically.
I now think that smaller is better. I try to influence one student: One teacher: One day: One conversation: I try to develop One idea: Change One thing.
That's the most I can do.
That's the most I can do.
So I'm getting ready for school. For a new year. New is so great, isn't it? I don't want is spoiled or sullied.
SO.... I don't want a theme for the year. I'm still looking for that one idea to inspire. I'ts not a great quote, it's not a great paper or position. And I'm going back to Franky. I'm going to ask for more than Mediocrity. That's all.
BTW, it's good to read great conversation.
BTW, it's good to read great conversation.
Jeff: I envy those years. Best wishes on your well. Eat a huckleberry in my name.
Renee
Renee Rasmussen Superintendent
Wibaux Public Schools
Renee...@hotmail.com
Renee...@hotmail.com
> Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:33:45 -0700
> From: sz...@greatfallscentral.org
> To: montana...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: It's summer!
Michael L. Umphrey
Jul 24, 2009, 3:07:32 PM7/24/09
to montana...@googlegroups.com
My mind was running on a similar
track--how scapegoating lets us make peace with our mediocrity. I
think about the trouble kids are really having and how little the
prescriptions emanating from the reform industry have to do with
it--today it's "Race to the Top" instead of "No Child Left Behind."
My solution is also to focus down. My main project is finding the right books--the right stories. We can teach the skills with almost anything but it's ultimately the right ideas that change behavior in powerful ways. I'm looking forward to a new year. My highlight last year was getting a formal reprimand for asking questions during the question period after our $50,000 consultant gave his motivational speech. So I took vows of silence, and then got reprimanded for unenthusiastic body language. You can't make this stuff up. Lots of people in the middle are afraid, I think.
My solution is also to focus down. My main project is finding the right books--the right stories. We can teach the skills with almost anything but it's ultimately the right ideas that change behavior in powerful ways. I'm looking forward to a new year. My highlight last year was getting a formal reprimand for asking questions during the question period after our $50,000 consultant gave his motivational speech. So I took vows of silence, and then got reprimanded for unenthusiastic body language. You can't make this stuff up. Lots of people in the middle are afraid, I think.
christa umphrey
Jul 25, 2009, 3:18:44 AM7/25/09
to montana...@googlegroups.com
It's so good to hear from everyone.
I wish I had more time to actually respond to the education discussion, but now I want to read Shop Class as Soul Craft and see if it's the book I wanted to write every time I had to sit through a 3-hour graduate seminar. I also love the name
Pax and just had to say that "Eat a huckleberry in my name" is the best line I've heard this week.
Hope everyone is enjoying the too-quickly-passing summer.
Christa
From: renee...@hotmail.com
To: montana...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: It's summer!
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:07:14 -0600
> </html
Renee Rasmussen
Jul 26, 2009, 10:31:06 PM7/26/09
to montana...@googlegroups.com
I think that most of the great classics...well taught are the "right books", the "right stories." I've had lots of success with MacBeth, with
The Scarlet Letter, with Cantebury Tales, with Romeo and Juliet, with Lord of the Flies.....many others. Its' the conversation that's so great. The thinking, the sharing.
The Scarlet Letter, with Cantebury Tales, with Romeo and Juliet, with Lord of the Flies.....many others. Its' the conversation that's so great. The thinking, the sharing.
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:07:32 -0600
From: mlum...@flatheadreservation.org
To: montana...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: It's summer!
nancy widdicombe
Jul 26, 2009, 11:07:26 PM7/26/09
to montana...@googlegroups.com
| Mike--A quick note--I am about a quarter through the book and will try to finish it within the next couple of days--I am finding it colorful and touching--and I really like what he said about you. What is most interesting is, of course, his read on the MHP and their relationship to it--I also am enjoying his use of language....more, later...Nancy --- On Fri, 7/24/09, Michael L. Umphrey <mlum...@flatheadreservation.org> wrote: |
Michael L. Umphrey
Jul 26, 2009, 11:14:07 PM7/26/09
to montana...@googlegroups.com
I just read one page on MHP and put the book on a shelf. Was there
more? The whole episode was out of bizarro land when it was happening
in real life and still has that feel reading his take on it several
years later.
Michael L. Umphrey
Jul 26, 2009, 11:21:40 PM7/26/09
to montana...@googlegroups.com
I think the classics work well in general. What I'm doing is trying to
figure out what challenges are coming to the fore for this generation,
and what literature might be most useful for them to think through the
things they're facing.
My general theory is that the purpose of life is to experience joy, and that people are more likely to be happy if they have accurate versions of what the world is and what the rules are.
For example, although levels of economic prosperity have been going up, levels of happiness have not, especially for women. More people report that they are lonely than was true a generation ago or ten years ago. Why? What literature might shed light on what young people need to know about that?
My general theory is that the purpose of life is to experience joy, and that people are more likely to be happy if they have accurate versions of what the world is and what the rules are.
For example, although levels of economic prosperity have been going up, levels of happiness have not, especially for women. More people report that they are lonely than was true a generation ago or ten years ago. Why? What literature might shed light on what young people need to know about that?
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages