tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52386133298679241372024-03-13T13:14:16.159-07:00To Write His LoveChristinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347308525266877427noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238613329867924137.post-72542685984383280702013-05-05T13:52:00.000-07:002013-05-05T13:52:47.353-07:00"once you learn to read, you will be forever free"<div lang="en">
<em>The title quote above is by Frederick Douglass. I have always treasured the gift of literature, always been exhilarated by the vast world of exploration that is opened up by the ability to read. In the article below, John Piper encapsulates the beauty and significance of reading for the individual who desires to be a lifelong learner ... the original article can be found </em><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/articles/teaching-schooling-and-reading"><em>here</em></a><em>. </em></div>
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<strong>Teaching, Schooling, and Reading</strong></div>
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By John Piper</div>
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I have said a number of times that all I try to teach in my seminar courses is how to read well. And I think that is all any of us in the humanities should be doing. Perhaps now a word of explanation and apology for this stance is in order. </div>
</aside><section class="main col_9
" role="main"><section class="manuscript col_7 down_1 in"><article lang="en">Reading is the process by which, through the means of written language, we come to understand another person's ideas. This is probably the most efficient way to increase what we know about reality and about how to live better. One could try to start from scratch and thus learn without anyone's insight what the world is like and what one ought to do, but that would not be very efficient. Or one could try to learn only by talking to living wise men. But that too would limit one's knowledge and be inefficient. Therefore almost everybody agrees that learning to read is important so that the wisdom of the wisest thinkers of all ages can be accessible through written language. <br />
<h4>
Don't be a Second-Hander</h4>
The person who has learned to read well is never dependent on living teachers to educate him. The growth of his mind and the betterment of his wisdom and his behavior is not connected with his being in or out of school. Because almost all the greatest thinkers of history have shared their wisdom in writing and because these great books are almost all available to be bought in stores or borrowed from libraries, the person who has trained himself in good, active reading and who cares about growing wiser, does not need live teachers or college classes, or daily assignments, or threatening exams. Instead, as a good reader and as one who is not enslaved to the television and radio, he has a lifetime of growth ahead of him. <br />
It is of the utmost importance that college students stop trying to fill their head with facts and start trying to form the habit of fruitful, active reading. Almost all the facts will be forgotten. But the skill and discipline and love of good reading will go on bearing fruit 30, 60, 100 fold. It is a tragedy that on graduation day so many students look back with a pang of longing that they are leaving the place of so much discovery and stimulating growth, instead of feeling themselves at the end of a training period which has now fit them for an adventurous lifetime of stimulating reading and discovery. It is a dreadful deception that learning and mental growing are strictly associated with school. Good reading should be the vocation of a lifetime. Schooling—at least my classes—is a concentrated training process to help prepare you for that vocation. </article></section></section><br />Christinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347308525266877427noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238613329867924137.post-88874178678782426812013-04-06T20:21:00.002-07:002013-04-07T10:15:02.769-07:00in the library: no coward soul is mine<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqCz4dSHHCebbNXuijJcMrCo_xMib9-D6qwKQFKh5e3P1ItbiIVilfuCv_DP_Om7CoeBBCXULlzbHvK19WtUwUeCpcS9uCRgYe8yGRLAyZ75j9Zer2ZRJv4AF7IZBqxNOfqBRP1yw4pg/s1600/emily+bronte.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqCz4dSHHCebbNXuijJcMrCo_xMib9-D6qwKQFKh5e3P1ItbiIVilfuCv_DP_Om7CoeBBCXULlzbHvK19WtUwUeCpcS9uCRgYe8yGRLAyZ75j9Zer2ZRJv4AF7IZBqxNOfqBRP1yw4pg/s320/emily+bronte.jpg" width="217" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">portrait of emily bronte by her mother branwell bronte // Wikipedia<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Emilybronte_retouche.jpg"></a></span></td></tr>
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<br />
My dream is to someday live in a home filled with dusty, old novels. When I first picked up an old copy of <em>Jane Eyre, </em>I relished<em> </em>its worn purple cover, yellowed pages, and musty scent. More than that, I savored its antiquated language and rich, poetic descriptions. While its author, Emily Bronte, paints vivid, fascinating characters, the elements of mysticism she weaves into the novel prompted me to contemplate Bronte herself: the shy, solitary authoress who, like Jane Eyre, suffered abuse and neglect as a child at a school for girls England. <br />
Though Emily Bronte has remained an enigma to historians, the following verses prompt me to believe that despite her difficult youth and reclusive adulthood, her heart was hidden beneath the shadow of her Savior's wings. As I memorize this poem for English class, I am struck by the bold trust and candid intimacy expressed within the quatrains. This eloquently scripted prayer offers a window into the soul of the author while simultaneously illustrating the perpetuity of God's provident peace in the hearts of His children throughout the ages. As I became enveloped in <i>Jane Eyre</i> and followed the title character on her pursuit for some kind of solace or truth, I could not help but wish that she, like Bronte, could discover the overwhelming comfort and goodness of God. He <em>is</em> infinite, He <em>is </em>glorious, and He <em>is</em> so very loving! Because of Him, our souls are freed from cowardice and filled with hope. Praise be to God!<br />
<br />
<em>No Coward Soul is Mine</em><br />
By Emily Bronte <br />
<br />
No coward soul is mine,<br />
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:<br />
I see Heaven's glories shine,<br />
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.<br />
<br />
O God within my breast,<br />
Almighty, ever-present Deity!<br />
Life--that in me has rest,<br />
As I--undying Life--have power in thee!<br />
<br />
Vain are the thousand creeds<br />
That move men's hearts: unutterably vain;<br />
Worthless as withered weeds,<br />
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,<br />
<br />
To waken doubt in one<br />
Holding so fast by thine infinity;<br />
So surely anchored on<br />
The steadfast rock of immortality.<br />
<br />
With wide-embracing love<br />
Thy spirit animates eternal years,<br />
Pervades and broods above,<br />
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.<br />
<br />
Though earth and man were gone,<br />
And suns and universes ceased to be,<br />
And Thou were left alone,<br />
Every existence would exist in Thee.<br />
<br />
There is not room for Death,<br />
Nor atom that his might could render void:<br />
Thou--Thou art Being and Breath,<br />
And what Thou art may never be destroyedChristinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15347308525266877427noreply@blogger.com0