A bit of time off

The weekly woolgathering has taken a couple weeks off because of our Spring Break.  It was pretty low key (we went to Bahrain) We will write a post about it soon!

Another reason for the hiatus has been the time of year I call “side-hustle season”.  My IB grading has started and that has taken up a bit of time recently.

Here are this week’s woolgatherings

I found this article called What Smartphone technology is doing to our memories interesting.  Not only does having a smartphone (and taking pictures) affect our memory, but it also focuses our attention only on certain things (namely the photos themselves).  Lots of fodder for my class.

As a History teacher (and a lover of history), this second article I found called Those Walls Can Talk! is a worthwhile read.  This article considers how seemingly mundane objects – architecture, art, dress, furniture – can provide us with a huge amount of knowledge on aspects such as education, wealth, pleasures, loves, and the trajectory of people’s lives. Something I forget every now and then.

Finally, there has been a lot of doom and gloom in the world around us.  From the Trump Presidency to the penchant for dystopian books and movies, it seems that kindness and being kind have fallen by the wayside.  For those who feel the same way, The Cult of being Kind might prove that kindness isn’t quite dead yet.

LINKS ARE NOW FIXED

 On our bookshelf

The concept for Smoke interested me. The back of the cover said that it was a cross between Harry Potter and Charles Dickens.  Sounds good so far! The idea is that when people sin, lie, or have impure thoughts they emit smoke from their bodies that form soot on their clothes.  The poor of this 19th-century alternate reality is covered in soot while the well-bred have learned to control it through education.

The story centers around two boys, Thomas and Charlie, who meet at a rich boarding school to be trained as future leaders and who eventually try to find out the truth about smoke – and whether or not a world can exist without it.

It is an interesting read and pretty imaginative, but not near Harry Potter-level of awesomeness.

William Stoner is a single child in a poor, farming family in Missouri.  His home life is based on hard work and his relationship with his parents is distant and formal.  At the age of 19, his father sends him to college to study agriculture after which it is assumed he will move back to the farm to apply his knowledge to improve the farm.  During his education, he feels more at college than of it and treats his studies as he has treated most of his toils on the farm, as the fulfillment of an obligation to this family.  In his second year, he discovers his love of English literature, changes his major and his life plans. Throughout the years he begins teaching, earns his Ph.D., gets married and has a child.  

Although Stoner is passionate about his work, he never rises above the rank of assistant professor.  Although he is capable of a deep and profound love for his wife and daughter, he falls short of his personal expectations in his home life as well.  He is thwarted at every turn to overcome the discrepancies between his idealized and actual self and lives his life in stagnant mediocrity. He is unfortunate soul lost in a sea of humanity.

 The writing is excellent and this book contains so much truth about life it has earned its position among my top 3 favorite books.  Personally, absorbing the reality of this book helped temper the daily bombardment of self-entitlement and aggrandizement that is malignant in today’s society.

I like My First Numbers Book! This is the first book that I can read on my own without mommy or daddy.  I do have problems saying strawberry still.  I really like to turn the book upside down at the number 6 because it is also a number 9!