Lines from The Princess Bride that Double as Comments on Freshman Composition Papers

by Jennifer Simonson

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

“At a time like this that’s all you can think to say?”

“Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.”

“I don’t think I’m quite familiar with that phrase.”

“I would not say such things if I were you!”

“I do not suppose you could speed things up?”

“Skip to the end!”

“That is the sound of ultimate suffering.”

“Inconceivable!”

The Word of a Gentleman and the Way of a Lady

Several years ago Evan Wilson put together some talks to college men to teach them how to be gentlemen.  They were so popular that the ladies demanded their own talks and these were added.  With both style and humor, Wilson has given us 15 "rules" for gentlemen and 15 "rules" for the ladies.  I ordered my book from him a couple of years ago and have enjoyed it immensely.  I plan to discuss these at the dinner table as my children get older.  Now I see that it is available on Amazon, so I thought I'd pass on a link to this helpful resource.

Dr. Johnson's Best

Early in James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson, he mentions that Dr. Johnson was once overheard saying that the best thing he ever wrote was The Vision of Theodore, the Hermit, found in his Cell.  It was only a google away, so I sat down and read this marvelous allegory about the Path to Happiness on the Mountain of Existence.  Go read it, it could easily work as an Ambleside Online Selection.  

Memory and the Church Fathers

While reading the Conferences of John Cassian I began to marvel at the encyclopedic scriptural memory of the desert monastics that were interviewed by Cassian and his friend Germanus.  How did they do it?  Not only did they remember large portions of scripture, but their memory functioned like a topical bible or concordance that could pull references from all parts of scripture.  I had to know.

The Book of Memory: A Study of Medieval Culture by Mary Carruthers offered the answers.  Carruthers extensive research explains the place and use of memory in medieval culture and most interestingly explores the different arts and techniques that were employed.  For instance, many Christians would memorize the entire Psalter, which  usually took two to three years.  Hugh of St. Victor wrote a short treatise to explain his personal method, which included the following steps:

1. Visualizing a grid with 150 locations, one for each Psalm.
2. Behind each number the first few words of each Psalm would be memorized, so that one had the complete reference system for all 150 psalms.
3. Then the individual Psalms themselves would be memorized.

Other techniques for memorizing lists or the contents of the gospels would use visualization and mental pictures to help with the recollection and organizing of data.  The goal of this memorization wasn't simply to know a lot of information, but to be an aid in contemplation and invention.

I wanted to use some of these methods with my children and discovered a book that uses some of these medieval techniques for a modern audience:  Memorize the Faith (And Anything Else) by Kevin Vost.  We started memorizing the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount last week and we have had great success.  It took us about 15 minutes to memorize them and we can now recall them forward or backward or starting at any point.  I highly recommend this book!




        

Messy Math Help

Last week we had a visitor to our home who is Ukrainian.  She caught a glimpse of our son's math work and was surprised that he wasn't using graph paper to do his work.  Apparently all math in the Ukraine is done on graph paper.  So, my wife decided to give it a try.  Here is the before:

Here is the after:

More Chrysostom on Child Rearing

Go to this pdf for a translation of Chrysostom's An Address on Vainglory and The Right Way for Parents to Bring Up Their Children.   He explains how to tell a bible story to children, compares the child's soul to a city, urges discipline and self sufficiency, and prohibits children from attending the theater among other excellent advice.

He concludes,

"Young men are troubled by desire, women by love of finery and excitement. Let us therefore repress all these tendencies. Thus we shall be able to please God by rearing such athletes for Him, that we and our children may light on the blessings that are promised to them that love Him (cf. I Corinthians 2:9), by the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be ascribed glory, power, and honor, now and for evermore. Amen."

de Maistre on Mothers

"It is for our sex, undoubtedly, to form geometers, tacticians, chemists, etc.; but for what is called the man, that is to say the moral man, is perhaps formed by the age of ten; and if it has not been done on the knees of his mother, it will always be a great misfortune.  Nothing can replace this education.  If the mother especially has made it a duty to imprint the divine character deeply on the brow of her son, one can be quite sure that the hand of vice will never efface it.  The young man can go astray, undoubtedly, but he will experience, if you will permit me this expression, a returning curve that will lead back to the point where he began."