Originally written
Tuesday, 30. May 2006
It is a quiet morning and I found some time while the children are absorbed in games of make believe to write some reflections I’ve been having because of Adler’s essay (posted before this one).
Getting this essay came at a good time for me. I have been listening to well meaning people question the choices I am making with regards to our family’s learning. As much as I would like to claim I am unmovable in my convictions I much confess I flinch now and again. So this essay reminded me what I was trying to accomplish and why.
I think school or colleges should only be condemned when their policies and practices get in the way of my educating myself. I think generally, people look to find fault or look to blame something else for their troubles. I don’t think it is the schools' or colleges' job to educate me or my children. I really don’t. A school might be in the business of educating but I don’t think they replace my responsibility to my own education.
I see it this way... I want an education. Say, I want to learn to read. I seek out someone who can show me how. They show me. I learn. I can read. The teacher gets my thanks and maybe some of my money but beyond that I owe him nothing more. From there on I am pursuing my own education by using this new developed skill. That is a simply put as I think it.
Adler says this;
“The very best thing for our schools to do is to
prepare the young for continued learning in later life by giving them the
skills of learning and the love of it.”
Yes, I agree here. However, I am not going to count on or rely on some one to do for me what I should do for myself.
So many of us send our child off to school and we expect a teacher to educate that child. We all believe that is a teacher‘s main priority, right?
Here is where the problem is I think.
Schools don’t focus on teaching you how to think. They focus on teaching your child what to think. If the teacher gives Bobby enough of the what to think Bobby will hopefully learn how to think for himself in the process. I am sure there is some success in this because children are bright but unfortunately with age comes the dullness of life’s distractions. What happens, perhaps, is that when Bobby graduates and no longer get the ‘what’ to think from teacher he loses some ability ‘how’ to think and his education ends there...unless, of course, he starts to get his own education now that all the legal requirements are fulfilled.
What’s my point? My point is that no one should assume responsibility for my education but me. The message I try to send to my children is the same, ‘no one is responsible for your education but you.’ You can find others who know more and get from them what you need. I think in that case a mentor is much better than a teacher but that’s a whole different blog.
Some might say, “a child doesn’t know what he needs.”
To which I feel almost like laughing. No one told an infant that they needed to walk. They knew it on their own. We don’t send our babies to walking and talking schools. They instinctively know and learn without an institution claiming responsibility to educate the babe. (Although with all the little Einstein programs and developmental toys out there...Gad! But I am not going down that road. Nurseries burst with color sound and texture but a child is most stimulated by LOVE- always has been always will be).
Anyway, a child does know what he wants to learn. A child knows what he wants more than most adults do. When children like something and they go after it, they touch it, they ask a billion questions about it, they smell it , taste it, pull it apart. Children know what they want to learn and all we can do is be there with the billion answers and better judgment so that our children aren’t put in harms way. Done. But I’ve said this a gazillion times, or as my son says ‘five thousand hundred billion’ when he means to say ‘a lot’.
Education is simple - Read, write, discuss & explore. It is, admittedly, hard to do but it is simple.
A son says, “I like dinosaurs.” We pull out the Dinotopia series and start reading it. We pull out dinosaur books and start drawing pictures. We go to a Dino museum, give our child a camera and a sketch pad and chase after them not to climb the exhibits or open the ‘staff only’ doors.
Kids know.
A daughter wants to be a ballerina. We read the many reditions of Swan Lake and take her to the performance. We get her a tutu and slippers. She writes stories about ballerinas, she draws pictures of ballerinas (and leaves them all over the living room floor because the fridge is completely full of dinosaur pictures!). We find her a mentor and let her go to classes. We watch her dance and clap and kiss her.
Kids know.
A son catches a spider and pulls his legs off. We read Charlotte’s Web and talk about it. We get a tarantella from the pet store call him Harry and buy him crickets to eat. Harry gets out once and we take him back to the pet store replacing Harry with posters and rubber tarantulas.
Kids know.
Ha! No flinching today. Sorry for the rant. It’s almost like throwing up - once you start you just can’t stop.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Food for Thought
Schooling Is Not Education
By Mortimer J. Adler
CHICAGO - For more than 40 years, a controlling insight in my educational
philosophy has been the recognition that no one has ever been - no one can
ever be - educated in school or college.
That would be the case if our schools and colleges were-at their very best,
which they certainly are not, and even if the students were among the best
and the brightest as well as conscientious in the application of their
powers.
The reason is simply that youth itself - immaturity - is an insuperable
obstacle to becoming educated. Schooling is for the young. Education came
later, usually much later. The very best thing for our schools to do is to
prepare the young for continued learning in later life by giving them the
skills of learning and the love of it. Our schools and colleges are not
doing that now, but that is what they should be doing.
To speak of an educated young person or of a wise young person, rich in the
understanding of basic ideas and issues, is as much a contradiction in terms
as to speak of a round square. The young can be prepared for education in
the years to come, but only mature men and women can become educated,
beginning the proms in their 40's and 50's and reaching some modicum of
genuine insight, sound judgment and practical wisdom after they have turned
60.
This is what no high school or college graduate knows or can understand. As
a matter of fact, most of their teachers do not seem to know it. In their
obsession with covering ground and in the way in which they test or examine
their students, they certainly do not act as if they understood that they
were only preparing their students for education in later life rather than
trying to complete it within the precincts of their institutions.
There is, of course, some truth in the ancient insight that awareness of
ignorance- is -the beginning of wisdom. But, remember, it is just the
beginning. From there on one has to do something about it. And to do it
intelligently one must know something of its causes- and cures - why adults
need- education and what, if anything, they can do about it.
When young adults realize how little they learned in school, they usually
assume there was something wrong with the school they attended or with the
way they spent their time there. But the fact is that the best possible
graduate of the best possible school needs to continue learning every bit as
much as the worst.
How should they go about doing this? In a recent book I tried to answer the
question, "How should persons proceed who wish to conduct for themselves the
continuation of learning after all schooling has been finished?" The brief
and simple answer to the question is: Read and discuss.
Never just read, for reading without, discussion with others who have read
the same book is not nearly as profitable. And as reading without discussion
can fail to yield the full measure of understanding that should be sought,
so discussion without the substance that good and great books afford is
likely to degenerate into little more than an exchange of opinions or
personal prejudices.
Those who take this prescription seriously would, of course, be better off
if their schooling had given them the intellectual discipline and skill they
need to carry it out, and if it had also introduced them, to the world of
learning with some appreciation of its basic ideas and issues. But even the
individual who is fortunate enough to leave school or college with a mind so
disciplined, and with an abiding love of learning would still have a long
road to travel before he or she became an educated person.
If our schools and colleges were doing their part and adults were doing
theirs, all would be well. However, our schools and colleges are not doing
their part because they are trying to do everything else. And adults are not
doing their part because most are under the illusion that they had completed
their education when they finished their schooling.
Only the person who realizes that mature life is the time to get the
education that no young person can ever acquire is at last on the high road
to learning. The road is steep and rocky, but it is the high road, open to
anyone who has skill in learning and the ultimate goal of all learning in
view - understanding the nature of things and man's place in the total
scheme.
An educated person is one who through the travail of his own life has
assimilated the ideas that make him representative of his culture, that make
him a bearer of its traditions and enable him to contribute to its
improvement.
Mortimer J. Adler was chairman of the board of directors of the Encyclopedia
Britannica. Article from The New York Times.
By Mortimer J. Adler
CHICAGO - For more than 40 years, a controlling insight in my educational
philosophy has been the recognition that no one has ever been - no one can
ever be - educated in school or college.
That would be the case if our schools and colleges were-at their very best,
which they certainly are not, and even if the students were among the best
and the brightest as well as conscientious in the application of their
powers.
The reason is simply that youth itself - immaturity - is an insuperable
obstacle to becoming educated. Schooling is for the young. Education came
later, usually much later. The very best thing for our schools to do is to
prepare the young for continued learning in later life by giving them the
skills of learning and the love of it. Our schools and colleges are not
doing that now, but that is what they should be doing.
To speak of an educated young person or of a wise young person, rich in the
understanding of basic ideas and issues, is as much a contradiction in terms
as to speak of a round square. The young can be prepared for education in
the years to come, but only mature men and women can become educated,
beginning the proms in their 40's and 50's and reaching some modicum of
genuine insight, sound judgment and practical wisdom after they have turned
60.
This is what no high school or college graduate knows or can understand. As
a matter of fact, most of their teachers do not seem to know it. In their
obsession with covering ground and in the way in which they test or examine
their students, they certainly do not act as if they understood that they
were only preparing their students for education in later life rather than
trying to complete it within the precincts of their institutions.
There is, of course, some truth in the ancient insight that awareness of
ignorance- is -the beginning of wisdom. But, remember, it is just the
beginning. From there on one has to do something about it. And to do it
intelligently one must know something of its causes- and cures - why adults
need- education and what, if anything, they can do about it.
When young adults realize how little they learned in school, they usually
assume there was something wrong with the school they attended or with the
way they spent their time there. But the fact is that the best possible
graduate of the best possible school needs to continue learning every bit as
much as the worst.
How should they go about doing this? In a recent book I tried to answer the
question, "How should persons proceed who wish to conduct for themselves the
continuation of learning after all schooling has been finished?" The brief
and simple answer to the question is: Read and discuss.
Never just read, for reading without, discussion with others who have read
the same book is not nearly as profitable. And as reading without discussion
can fail to yield the full measure of understanding that should be sought,
so discussion without the substance that good and great books afford is
likely to degenerate into little more than an exchange of opinions or
personal prejudices.
Those who take this prescription seriously would, of course, be better off
if their schooling had given them the intellectual discipline and skill they
need to carry it out, and if it had also introduced them, to the world of
learning with some appreciation of its basic ideas and issues. But even the
individual who is fortunate enough to leave school or college with a mind so
disciplined, and with an abiding love of learning would still have a long
road to travel before he or she became an educated person.
If our schools and colleges were doing their part and adults were doing
theirs, all would be well. However, our schools and colleges are not doing
their part because they are trying to do everything else. And adults are not
doing their part because most are under the illusion that they had completed
their education when they finished their schooling.
Only the person who realizes that mature life is the time to get the
education that no young person can ever acquire is at last on the high road
to learning. The road is steep and rocky, but it is the high road, open to
anyone who has skill in learning and the ultimate goal of all learning in
view - understanding the nature of things and man's place in the total
scheme.
An educated person is one who through the travail of his own life has
assimilated the ideas that make him representative of his culture, that make
him a bearer of its traditions and enable him to contribute to its
improvement.
Mortimer J. Adler was chairman of the board of directors of the Encyclopedia
Britannica. Article from The New York Times.
Lessons in Lumber...
Originally written
Wednesday, 8. March 2006, 13:38:22
When we bought our first home, in the back corner of our lot there resided a log pile. It had been there for a very long time. Most of the logs (no doubt meant for the fire place) were useless with rot. It was an eye sore that needed to be fixed. Naturally my husband, sensing that I had work for him to do, didn’t feel that it was a priority. We did not have a truck to haul the mess away to the dump with. I did not know anyone in town well enough to ask any favors so I was left to my own ingenuity. It was early spring and I saw that we had a fire pit in the back yard. I decided that log by log I would burn that pile of old wood in the little fire pit. It took me several weeks before each log was consumed. The rest of the bark and debris that wouldn’t burn I put in dozens of bags which I took - bag by bag - to the dump in the back of our family vehicle. It was a big job but I had it done after a few months much to my satisfaction. I worked hard and that felt good.
Now I must contrast that story with a very similar experience I had as a child. I was given the job to move a heap of tree limbs and broken branches to a burn pile across the yard. It was a mountainous mass for a 10 year old to move. And it took months of crying, complaining, procrastinating and faking injury to get it finished. The problem I had here was that I focused on the pile. I did not think about the branch at hand (although that is exactly how I moved that pile). It did not give me a sense of satisfaction. I was relieved the torture was over but not satisfied in a job well done. I worked hard - complaining - and that did not feel good.
When I think of the responsibility I have taken on as a home base learning mom I think of those wood piles. I have a big job ahead of me. I am not about forcing a child to learn (actually, I am all about that because that is how I was taught but I am taking the steps to end the cycle). It doesn’t work. It is harmful. I am however, about guiding them towards excellence. I do want my children to “learn accurately; to read, to write, and count readily and competently; to acquire a sense of history and develop a taste for literature and the arts”. [Jacues Barzun] What parent doesn’t?
I have a huge job ahead of me because I need to work hard at my own self education so that I am prepared for the questions that come my way. In a Thomas Jefferson Education this is a principle titled, ‘You not Them’. I have a great deal to learn. The wood pile is a mountain! How on earth am I going to learn it all? Why, one log at a time of course. As I study one subject, one book, one idea at a time I will be ready a little more each day.
For example, I am reading The Fairy-land of Science by Arabella B. Buckley. Chapter by chapter I am learning something new (and loving it). I am reading to learn. I am not reading to get the book finished. Let me say it again (only to remind myself) I read to learn - to understand - to grow - to expand - to prepare.
Hard work feels good when it’s over. Worrying, complaining, procrastination, making excuses, ignoring is hard work too but it doesn’t feel good. That reminds me of a quote I once read;
"We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."
Carlos Castaneda
Wednesday, 8. March 2006, 13:38:22
When we bought our first home, in the back corner of our lot there resided a log pile. It had been there for a very long time. Most of the logs (no doubt meant for the fire place) were useless with rot. It was an eye sore that needed to be fixed. Naturally my husband, sensing that I had work for him to do, didn’t feel that it was a priority. We did not have a truck to haul the mess away to the dump with. I did not know anyone in town well enough to ask any favors so I was left to my own ingenuity. It was early spring and I saw that we had a fire pit in the back yard. I decided that log by log I would burn that pile of old wood in the little fire pit. It took me several weeks before each log was consumed. The rest of the bark and debris that wouldn’t burn I put in dozens of bags which I took - bag by bag - to the dump in the back of our family vehicle. It was a big job but I had it done after a few months much to my satisfaction. I worked hard and that felt good.
Now I must contrast that story with a very similar experience I had as a child. I was given the job to move a heap of tree limbs and broken branches to a burn pile across the yard. It was a mountainous mass for a 10 year old to move. And it took months of crying, complaining, procrastinating and faking injury to get it finished. The problem I had here was that I focused on the pile. I did not think about the branch at hand (although that is exactly how I moved that pile). It did not give me a sense of satisfaction. I was relieved the torture was over but not satisfied in a job well done. I worked hard - complaining - and that did not feel good.
When I think of the responsibility I have taken on as a home base learning mom I think of those wood piles. I have a big job ahead of me. I am not about forcing a child to learn (actually, I am all about that because that is how I was taught but I am taking the steps to end the cycle). It doesn’t work. It is harmful. I am however, about guiding them towards excellence. I do want my children to “learn accurately; to read, to write, and count readily and competently; to acquire a sense of history and develop a taste for literature and the arts”. [Jacues Barzun] What parent doesn’t?
I have a huge job ahead of me because I need to work hard at my own self education so that I am prepared for the questions that come my way. In a Thomas Jefferson Education this is a principle titled, ‘You not Them’. I have a great deal to learn. The wood pile is a mountain! How on earth am I going to learn it all? Why, one log at a time of course. As I study one subject, one book, one idea at a time I will be ready a little more each day.
For example, I am reading The Fairy-land of Science by Arabella B. Buckley. Chapter by chapter I am learning something new (and loving it). I am reading to learn. I am not reading to get the book finished. Let me say it again (only to remind myself) I read to learn - to understand - to grow - to expand - to prepare.
Hard work feels good when it’s over. Worrying, complaining, procrastination, making excuses, ignoring is hard work too but it doesn’t feel good. That reminds me of a quote I once read;
"We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."
Carlos Castaneda
Heroes and Sheroes con't
My husband can't stand the sound of her voice - but to me it's like pure water rushing over my soul - I wonder if she'd cringe at my poetic attempts. That voice, deep and rich, rising up out of a spirit that knows something - moves me unlike any voice. Last summer I listened, over and over again to her (via internet) speak at Coretta Scott King's funeral. She lifts me - almost tosses me up with her words...her song. I remember looking at her and thinking, "Goodness she is getting older." I prayed that moment as I listened to her sing 'I shall not be moved' that she would not be moved from this life just yet.
She speaks to my woman soul - tossing me up and up and up ...
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Maya Angelou
Heroes and Sheroes
Orgininally written
Wednesday, 18. October 2006, 22:29:2
"Fear is a habit. I am not afraid."
Wednesday, 18. October 2006, 22:29:2
"Fear is a habit. I am not afraid."
This is Aung San Suu Kyi.
She is a non-violent, pro-democracy activist, the leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma. Such a leader is not welcomed by the militia dictatorship there...
Her example lifts me into my humanity. Her story is one of great sacrifice and she faces it with the heart of a Lion that lies with the lamb. Please read this essay she wrote in the 90’s. See if you are not lifted - you have nothing to be afraid of...
http://www.dassk.org/contents.php?id=416
“The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.” Aung San Suu Kyi
Life Long Learning
Originally written
Wednesday, 1. March 2006, 13:51:44
Some already know that we have decided to take the children out of public school for the fall and some already know that we are also moving back ‘home’ this summer. I am so excited for both! I am looking forward to starting home based learning again that I am already planning and scheming (here is where I am rubbing my hands together and smiling).
The children are very anxious to start home base learning. They wanted to start a while back but we are going to finishing out the year at public school. I am glad they came to this on their own and I am relieved at how anxious they are to get going.
A few words come to mind when I think of our families hbl style.
Exploration. Creativity.
Classic. Family. Faith.
The other day I read the email of a very enlightened woman who talked about how she can really only give to her children what is ‘hers‘. It has resounded within me for the past few days. There are things I am aware of that I am good at, talents I have been developing my whole life and some I have just started to develop. These are the things that are 'mine' that I can give to my children.
This year I am focusing on giving my children what is mine. I am committed to becoming a scholar in these areas. I am also committed to teaching my children scripture stories and our family history starting with Great Grandparents(who they were and what they did). I am committed to exploration this year. I am committed to having early morning walks. I am committed to teaching them how to manage a home. I am committed to exposing my children to as many things as I can. I am committed to inspiring a love of learning (not forcing or pushing anything).
I want my children to understand that learning is a life long commitment and that it is their responsibility to educate themselves.
And of course I am blogging our journey as a family. I am documenting it for many reasons; so that family and friends understand what we are doing, it’s a part of our family history, it’s a resource for others who might be interested, it’s a place my facilitator can go to see what we are doing and it is a creative outlet for the whole family.
Wednesday, 1. March 2006, 13:51:44
Some already know that we have decided to take the children out of public school for the fall and some already know that we are also moving back ‘home’ this summer. I am so excited for both! I am looking forward to starting home based learning again that I am already planning and scheming (here is where I am rubbing my hands together and smiling).
The children are very anxious to start home base learning. They wanted to start a while back but we are going to finishing out the year at public school. I am glad they came to this on their own and I am relieved at how anxious they are to get going.
A few words come to mind when I think of our families hbl style.
Exploration. Creativity.
Classic. Family. Faith.
The other day I read the email of a very enlightened woman who talked about how she can really only give to her children what is ‘hers‘. It has resounded within me for the past few days. There are things I am aware of that I am good at, talents I have been developing my whole life and some I have just started to develop. These are the things that are 'mine' that I can give to my children.
This year I am focusing on giving my children what is mine. I am committed to becoming a scholar in these areas. I am also committed to teaching my children scripture stories and our family history starting with Great Grandparents(who they were and what they did). I am committed to exploration this year. I am committed to having early morning walks. I am committed to teaching them how to manage a home. I am committed to exposing my children to as many things as I can. I am committed to inspiring a love of learning (not forcing or pushing anything).
I want my children to understand that learning is a life long commitment and that it is their responsibility to educate themselves.
And of course I am blogging our journey as a family. I am documenting it for many reasons; so that family and friends understand what we are doing, it’s a part of our family history, it’s a resource for others who might be interested, it’s a place my facilitator can go to see what we are doing and it is a creative outlet for the whole family.
Looking Good - Jane Eyre style
Originally written
Tuesday, 3. January 2006, 22:39:43
Recently, I had subscribed to daily emails that gave tips/advice (fun or silly depending) to help me become more charming...why not hey?
The other day I got an email about Frump ... that I should avoid it at all cost. Now, this email slapped me in the face because well...I have gained some weight and have become rather 'frump-a-licious'.
According to the experts, there is no such thing as 'frump-a-licious. (frump meaning the lack of care in one's appearance - don't do one's hair, wear grubbies in public etc).
It has been bothering me ever since. I have always been the type of person that for the most part, when it comes to fashion, has not really (depending on the day) cared what I looked like. I can go out without make up and I have been know to frequent the grocery stores in my pj bottoms (when laundry has been neglected or I feel particularly bloated...yes, it is true). I have always maintained that it really doesn't matter what a person looks like, it matters what they are like on the inside.
It just so happened that as I was reading Charlotte Bronte's Jane Erye she addressed the same topic but she put it in words that didn't so much slap as they did gently nudged.
"I rose; I dressed myself with care: obliged to be plain - for I had no article of attire that was not made with extreme simplicity - I was still by nature solicitous to be neat.It was not my habit to be disregardful of appearance, or careless of the impression I made: on the contrary, I ever wished to look as well as I could, and to please as much as my want of beauty would permit."
There you have it. Ever the sage that Jane is. It's really that simple, beauty is an effort to do the best with what you have. She wasn't a handsome woman herself, she being rather little, pale, with irregular features. She was plain...Jane. And yet, I love her...she is one of the most endearing female characters ever written (so far anyway). Jane teaches how we need to take what we have and fully use it to our advantage.
Appearance to her, I think, was a way of reflecting on the outside who she was on the inside. She wasn't trying to catch a man, she wasn't vain, she wasn't obsessed. She color coordinated her spirit with her body if you will.
So, there you have it, I am going to cease all disregarding of my appearance and careless making of my impressions. May this tiny little thought help where it may...if only to get you to read Jane Eyre (again and again)...and to let you know that you are indeed beaut-a-licious!
Tuesday, 3. January 2006, 22:39:43
Recently, I had subscribed to daily emails that gave tips/advice (fun or silly depending) to help me become more charming...why not hey?
The other day I got an email about Frump ... that I should avoid it at all cost. Now, this email slapped me in the face because well...I have gained some weight and have become rather 'frump-a-licious'.
According to the experts, there is no such thing as 'frump-a-licious. (frump meaning the lack of care in one's appearance - don't do one's hair, wear grubbies in public etc).
It has been bothering me ever since. I have always been the type of person that for the most part, when it comes to fashion, has not really (depending on the day) cared what I looked like. I can go out without make up and I have been know to frequent the grocery stores in my pj bottoms (when laundry has been neglected or I feel particularly bloated...yes, it is true). I have always maintained that it really doesn't matter what a person looks like, it matters what they are like on the inside.
It just so happened that as I was reading Charlotte Bronte's Jane Erye she addressed the same topic but she put it in words that didn't so much slap as they did gently nudged.
"I rose; I dressed myself with care: obliged to be plain - for I had no article of attire that was not made with extreme simplicity - I was still by nature solicitous to be neat.It was not my habit to be disregardful of appearance, or careless of the impression I made: on the contrary, I ever wished to look as well as I could, and to please as much as my want of beauty would permit."
There you have it. Ever the sage that Jane is. It's really that simple, beauty is an effort to do the best with what you have. She wasn't a handsome woman herself, she being rather little, pale, with irregular features. She was plain...Jane. And yet, I love her...she is one of the most endearing female characters ever written (so far anyway). Jane teaches how we need to take what we have and fully use it to our advantage.
Appearance to her, I think, was a way of reflecting on the outside who she was on the inside. She wasn't trying to catch a man, she wasn't vain, she wasn't obsessed. She color coordinated her spirit with her body if you will.
So, there you have it, I am going to cease all disregarding of my appearance and careless making of my impressions. May this tiny little thought help where it may...if only to get you to read Jane Eyre (again and again)...and to let you know that you are indeed beaut-a-licious!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
