Here is my fourth post of mostly links to what I’ve found intriguing, compelling or convicting lately.  Perhaps you’ll find something of interest in what I’ve been reading online and in print!

On one side of my family I am a seventh generation Virginian.  My Church of the Brethren ancestors rejected dancing, fancy clothes, cards, alcohol, and slavery, and were hardly of the class or mindset of the Distressed Cavaliers that formed the First Families of Virginia.  Still, as the daughter and I have practically memorized Pride and Prejudice and are considering adding Country Dance to our PE Schedule, we found Virginians Are of Genuine Blood by Chuck H. at the British Isles Dance Group interesting.

This article was bouncing around amongst the homeschool community on FB.  I really like what Anna Sofia and Elizabeth Botkin have to say about the real value of education and The Top Ten Things that Girls Should Study (but rarely do) and the real reasons why these top ten things matter.  (It has nothing to do with parental ego, societal expectations or potential six-figure incomes.)

Speaking of quiet modesty, Femina asks us Indulge Me In A Parable.  Who hasn’t watched this happen?

She was aggressive enough about it that lots of ladies who ought to have known better felt kind of stupid about the whole thing and so they chimed in with their agreement. What we all need to do, they agreed on facebook, was to worry less about modesty. Let’s be adults for heaven’s sake.

Our homeschool started up again in late August, after driving #1 Son back for year two at the over-priced liberal state college.  The Daughter was depressed, and frankly we all still feel somewhat bereft.  I find it so very sad that many parents can’t wait to send their children off to school for a “little peace and quiet” or to have more “me” time.   Mr. Garner and I find that our children truly are our favorite people!  This post, You Just Wait, by Brant at Air 1 rhymes with our feelings.

Through the summer, we kept up our Latin; the Daughter had daily Math, some writing and reading assignments.  We only had a very brief two week break.  This post by Charlene Notgrass, The Perfect First Day of School, was a good one for me to read as we started back to school.

Many of us may have an idea of what we think a perfect first day of school would look like. It’s something we keep in our imaginations. We certainly don’t have any photographs of that day, because we just haven’t experienced it yet…

Less than perfect days are perfect days to teach the things we didn’t plan, things like how to handle disappointment, how to laugh at ourselves, how to try again when we’ve messed something up. Isn’t every day we live a less than perfect day? Isn’t that why Jesus had to die for us?

Contrast any good homeschool book list using Charlotte Mason or Classical method with the rubbish for sale in book stores, for checkout at the library, and soon  in a Common Core classroom near you.  In The Case for Good Taste in Children’s Books Meghan Cox Curdon takes to task the adults who write, produce and sell sub-standard, salacious and violent books specifically targeting the teen market.

 “You are naïve if you think young people can read a dark and violent book that sits on the library shelves and not believe that the behavior must be condoned by the adults in their school lives.”

She points out that the ugliness in print is simply one more example of the artistic degradation that has been a century in the making:

 “It is not merely that artists, directors, musicians and others connected with the arts are in a flight from beauty . . . . There is a desire to spoil beauty . . . . For beauty makes a claim on us; it is a call to renounce our narcissism and look with reverence on the world.”

You’ve probably already seen this, a July Smithsonian Article about a 1912 Eighth Grade Graduation Test.  Mr. Garner and I found it interesting as we made our way down the list, especially since we will have no one to blame but ourselves for the Daughter’s education!   We had to look up Wasatch.   I only knew about Montenegro because of Nero Wolfe.  Diagramming is a lost art (one we are learning in our Latin), but to diagram a Bible Verse, “The Lord loveth a cheerful giver” made me smile.

I am learning a great deal from the Poem of the Week posts at the CIRCE Institute.  This poem by C.S. Lewis and Joshua Leland’s article are especially rich.

The link between abortion and breast cancer has been suppressed in the US for years, but other countries are doing studies and not suppressing their findings.  Here is a study from India. 

And the question persists: has the practical result ever justified the immoral means?  Children today get 49 doses of 14 vaccines before they are six years old.  The Cranks Were Right…

The post title I’ve chosen for these sorts of posts is obscure on purpose.  Meaning “now I know in part,” the phrase is found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians towards the end of chapter 13.  It refers to the fact that our knowledge of God and His mysteries unfolds only in part during our human existence.  We must wait for full disclosure.  This should instill a great deal of humility in our thinking…