Category: From the Catbird Seat

Reluctant Readers

by Debra Conley

Boys are more often reluctant readers than their female counterparts. I am comfortable laying some of the blame on our society’s expectation of boys. There is still a stigma attached to boys who are interested in reading but maybe not in sports. Too many schools overemphasize sports and pressure young people to be involved. The rigorous practice and game schedule has gotten out of hand and the young reader finds little time for outside pleasure reading. Parents are challenged to find reading fascinating enough that the student will make time to read.

I’ve reviewed Max Elliot Anderson’s books before, but his newest ones are better than ever. For those of you unfamiliar with Anderson, he has been involved in Christian films for youth and written programs for them (some on PBS) for years and has a solid reputation as a writer of Christian materials for young readers.

An admitted reluctant reader as a boy, Anderson captivates the adventure bug in all boys with his strong plots, always weaving a mystery into the adventure that draws in readers of either gender. He favors the Northwest and its rustic settings in many of his books, appealing to all young boys’ interest in cowboy and wilderness lifestyle reminiscent of the pioneer age.

To my students, I dubbed Anderson as the Christian equivalent of Jack London in his ability to bring the thrill of wildlife experience and new frontier adventure to life. The big difference is that unlike London, Anderson knows there is a Creator of all this outdoor beauty right down to the creatures that inhabit it. Anderson never falls to the wrong side of that fine dividing line between right and wrong, nor is the reader ever in question as to what is right or wrong. Anderson’s clear Christian ethics and open testimony always make the case for what is morally right. Some reviewers found this offensive or uncomfortable; I found it refreshing.

My favorite so far is Big-Rig Rustlers because the bigger-than-life Wyoming ranch life comes through in a vicarious experience that rivals the real. I don’t know any young boy who wouldn’t like to experience life on a working cattle ranch, ride horses with the round-up team, and help solve the problems and mysteries that arise. Buy a ten gallon hat for this adventure!

Reading at an Early Age

by Debra Conley

A parent can develop critical reading skills in his child at a very early age.  Here’s a way to start:  use the five W’s when you read with your child.  Those questions are Who, What, When, Where, and Why about the story or lesson.  Don’t ever fall into the trap of simply asking what happened, particularly if you don’t know the story.  And there’s a fine line between allowing the child to be creative and imaginative while still understanding the reality of the author’s purpose.  That’s where only the parent who knows his child can make the call.

As the adult reader, you must first determine what the author’s purpose in this work is.  For elementary reading, this falls into only a few categories.  Entertainment, or to make us laugh and enjoy, is common.  Authors also write to teach a lesson, develop a moral (the distinction between right and wrong), and to inform (exposition).  When your child answers those five W’s, they should “fit” the author’s purpose within reason.  It’s important not to allow the child to stray too far from this in his answers.  If a child is allowed to assume that any answer he gives is correct, even when it is not, an incorrect pattern of detecting and putting clues together will develop.  Children stick very hard and fast to what they learn first, so make every effort to get the reading pattern established from the beginning: author’s purpose, explained by answering the five W’s.

I know what you’re thinking.  If the author is only writing to entertain, how can my young reader answer those five questions?

1. Is the character (Who?) funny in a particular way, such as mannerisms, slips of the tongue, or mistaken concepts?  Readers should laugh at the character because they see themselves.

2. What is the entertaining event in this story?  It could be a plan that goes wrong, or falling into the swimming pool fully clothed.

3. Is the time set in the story (When?) appropriate to the character and the event?  Does the time element enhance the story?

4. It doesn’t make sense to read about the hustle and bustle of noise if the story takes place in a rural area (Where).

5. Why does the character make the choices we read about?  How do those decisions affect the outcome?

If the answer to any of these is that it doesn’t really matter to the story, you have a weak piece of literature, or have made an incorrect conclusion.

Misues of Biblical Allusions

by Debra Conley

It’s true that children can learn to read without ever touching the classics or the ultimate classic, the Bible.  However, much of our modern (here I refer to anything written from the Renaissance forward) literature uses allusions, or references, to previous literary works.  Allusions to the Bible are prevalent until mid-20th Century writing.  A smattering of Biblical knowledge is not enough.  Let’s look at a few examples to see why.

The phrase “out of the mouths of babes” is used in both Psalms (8:2) and Matthew (21:16).  Most modern references change the original meaning to convey the idea of just total naivety or ignorance.  But the thorough reading of the Biblical text shows that the phrase refers to the praise of children being the most honest and deserved because children see purely.  It is really saying that children have a kind of untainted wisdom worthy of attention.

Without careful attention to Scripture reading, how would one know that Henry David Thoreau, the premier naturalist of the 19th Century, completely missed the point in Walden when he quoted 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”  Thoreau related this text to mean that anyone who studies nature (early morning light in spring specifically) realizes that death is not to be feared but accepted as the law of life, the natural course of events, the ever-continuing cycle of life.  He claims this to be the proof of immortality.  Had he read verse 56, he would have known that the sting of death is not fear, but rather a result of sin, and he obviously never grasped the concept that victory over the grave is the knowledge of the believer in eternal salvation.  Thoreau’s victory is that he has conquered the fear of death by accepting it, by categorizing it into his cycle of nature philosophy.  He never knew the real victory of death, that it is a stepping stone to life eternal.  Only the Biblically educated reader catches this kind of mistake.

Note:  For a real shock, see how many Biblical allusions you can find in any children’s literature written in the last fifty years.  You won’t need paper and pen to keep track.

Ancient Literature

by Debra Conley

My September column prompted a reader to question me, “What is so great about all that ancient literature?” When I ask students to read, I want them to have several experiences in one. The text must present a viable theme, such as good conquers evil. I also like for the reading to show students how complex sentences create drama and lead the reader from page to page. These sentences often contain extensive vocabulary, another aid to advanced comprehension. These alone are hard to find in recent literature.

Character development is also essential for good reading. The writer must present us with a complex person who has to make moral and ethical choices that come with consequences. We should live through the character and struggle in making these choices with him; then we suffer or enjoy the consequences along with him, which is an excellent form of vicarious learning. In good literature, the strong character will survive and conquer whatever happens to him. This resolution of issues by a character’s choices is an essential part of what constitutes good reading.

Ancient classics such as The Odyssey by Homer or the plays of Sophocles contain these elements at the least. They also contain tremendous stories and adventures. What more could one want in literature?

For teaching purposes, elements such as moral integrity, where Biblical right is always right and Biblical wrong is always wrong, and character integrity, where the protagonist chooses right over wrong regardless of the consequences, are desired. These elements usually exist even in ancient literature written before the Bible and life of Christ. I think it reveals that God was speaking and working to prepare the hearts of men even then. The conviction of these ancient writers could come from no other source. They may have mistakenly attributed it to multiple gods, but the idea that there is that authority was there. To me, it’s fascinating to find Biblical ethics in ancient writings. Think for a minute about a lawless and anarchist society suddenly introduced to the teachings of Jesus. God obviously prepared the way, even in the pens of ancient writers, long before Christ’s appearance.

Choosing a Life Profession

by Debra Conley

One of the growing problems in the education of young people is the pressure to make early educational and career choices. Before they are even mature enough to know who they are, they must decide what they will study or train for as their life’s profession immediately after high school. The pressure to make this decision is being pushed as far back as the ninth grade. And I think colleges are largely to blame. They have taken the easy way out, a one time test score, usually the SAT or ACT, as the total measure of a student’s acceptance. A numerical cut-off makes the job completely impersonal and fair. But this means that rather than judging a student’s future performance by his past performance (as a student), his life as a college student hangs in the balance of a one time test. The student is no more than a number score to most college admissions departments.

There are also the new “balanced” curriculums which are anything but. All they balance is the number of weeks in school and out of school throughout the year. This system (I cannot refer to it ethically as a curriculum) pressures teachers to teach to the test. Students rotate in and out of classes regularly in order to be able to take a battery of state and federal tests. In many of these systems, the teacher’s tenure is tied to student test scores and nothing else. Real education is no longer an end unto itself. It is a means to an end, that of “success” in the world’s terms.

Such an assembly line atmosphere is considered desirable if you are Henry Ford and need to turn out a million vehicles with no one varying an iota from the next. Here’s the real irony, though. The College Assessment Companies (who create the SAT and ACT and most others) themselves acknowledge that the poorest performance on any of their tests is in the realm of critical thinking! What’s the Christian parent to do with this cesspool of socialistic thinking? How can your child deal with the tremendous pressure of making these early decisions and spending his entire educational life preparing for one test?

God’s perfect will (for each of us) is that we spend our lives seeking His will. I firmly believe that God’s will is not a one event resource. We don’t pull it out of a hat on test day or during a trial period. Notice that when God said we should study (the Scriptures) to show ourselves approved unto God (II Tim 2:15) He put no parameters on how many events, or how many days or years we are to study. It is a life-style habit, much as our daily physical exercise, that guides us through life in the way He would have us to go. Parents need to teach their children this habit early. Parents should expect and teach their children to respect those in authority over them, teachers included. If they take the SAT, they should do their best. But if seeking God’s will is the overriding goal of their life, they will not succumb to the early pressures to make a career choice. They’ve already made the career choice: to seek God’s will. In paraphrasing loosely Oswald Chambers, my utmost desire must be to do God’s will and that will set forth His highest praise but also His highest priority for me.

Music and Critical Thinking

by Debra Conley

Critical thinking necessitates an ability to identify and properly assimilate all parts of the whole, whatever the subject. Recent studies are beginning to show a definite correlation between listening to intricate music (classical, for instance) and later abilities in math and science. These studies, started more than a decade ago, centered on exposing infants and toddlers in a wide range of IQ’s to classical music. Now these infants are in grade school and regardless of their measured intelligence abilities, they are performing well above the norm in math and science (several of the studies are listed below). Why is this? The studies claims that the classical music parts which involve the listener in melody, counter-melody, many harmony parts, and constant tempo and key changes prepare the mind for complicated assimilations. This is a far cry from the one-note chant mantra backed only by droning percussion which fosters antagonism and hyper-activity (read any of Frank Garlock’s summaries on rock music).

Studying complicated science experiments and math with particular structure to each problem and its parts is a kind of critical thinking. The student must place the proper part in its exact (that is, logical) order or the wrong answer results; the science experiment fails to work. The students cannot do these unless he has the ability to grasp the proper sequence and the necessary parts at each interval. This is how the study relates classical music to intricate study. Certainly not all students good in math and science do so because of music, but the studies are surprisingly weighted.

It occurs to me that many of our traditional hymns follow the parts of the Bible story from start to finish: the prophets tell of His coming; He is born of a virgin, taught us how to live, died for our sins, and gave us eternal hope through His resurrection. Just the words in the two hymns “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne” and “The Old Rugged Cross” cover much of the Biblical story of why (and how) Christ came and how He gives us eternal life.  My hope is that my grandchildren may have their hearts prepared for God’s message through such songs that put together all the parts of the story.

1. Richards Institute Study on Music and the Brain was done at UC Irvine and reported by Dr. Shaw in the British Journal of Music Education, July 2000.

2. Several web sites explain “The Mozart Effect”, and ongoing research project.

Studying Ancient Philosophers

by Debra Conley

Why study the ancient philosophers? Most scholars know that they lived under the ancient ideas of multiple gods who were not the one true God. So what is the point of their philosophy? As one student wrote, “Socrates lived long ago. He gave long speeches, so his friends poisoned him.” His long “speeches” were philosophical dialogues designed to completely think through an issue, a practice with which our current culture is very unaccustomed.

Even though Socrates lived before the birth of Christ, he recognized that the mythological gods were not real. This is part of the “crime” for which he was executed. He taught the philosophy that the best way to live was by discerning an absolute truth and then living by it, regardless of the consequences. His submission to the death penalty for refusing to be swayed is quite an example. Stand firm in what you have discovered, through much intellectual pursuit, to be the truth. This is the heart of philosophy.

It’s quite possible that these early philosophers were preparing the way for ancient societies to dismiss the mythological gods and by this intellectual pursuit that Socrates encouraged, be able to discern the truth of the one true God who would be born in the years to follow. This is in line with Josh McDowell’s conclusion in Evidence That Demands a Verdict, that there is enough evidence in our universe of a Creator and these evidences compel the intellectual to seek and know who this Creator is.

We live in an exciting time: many of the theories taught as fact over the last century are being crumbled by these “evidences” as scientists discover more than just the inconsistencies of outward evolutionary processes. It is through philosophical thinking—getting to the bottom of the absolute (complete) truth and accepting nothing less—that these scientists have made these discoveries. If they had been willing to accept the status quo, they may not have pursued the science which did not fit into evolutionary theory.

Studying Philosophy

by Debra Conley

It is not possible to master critical thinking skills without a study of philosophy. This involves objective measuring and testing of ideas and then implementation of those ideas into set principles. While we often think this is what we do, it is usually that we approach implementation by first trying to fit the idea into principles without testing the idea. If we have trouble making those ideas “fit,” we often adjust the principles or alter them to fit the idea. If philosophy is approached objectively, then bad ideas are eliminated rather than adjusted, and principles are never changed to fit ideas. If your children are not mature enough to read Plato (especially Republic), then start with simple exercises. Example: you want to create a business, any kind will do. Discuss objectively what product you will create or distribute. Discuss how you will advertise and what kind of employees you’ll hire. What rules will you put in place for operations, for advertising, and for managing employees? This will lead to discussions of principles. Plato’s point in Republic is that societies need to do what is necessary for the Republic itself to survive, not what is necessary for all new ideas to survive. He means that the underlying principles of any republic must be kept intact. Plato also says that society without morality has no foundation principles (it takes away the foundation and puts nothing in its place).

Of course, Plato is much deeper than this little summary and delves into the human nature of decision making, showing that we choose leaders for all the wrong reasons. Even before the Bible told us that men will revile us for teaching the truth, Plato knows that men of principle are hated, even killed (read “The Cave” essay from the Republic).

I cannot stress enough that one study the objective philosophies of the ancients and avoid all modern philosophers (who often think that the principles are up for discussion as situation ethics) unless you have total confidence in the writer’s background. The well-taught “philosophers” of the last few centuries, Emerson, Thoreau, Voltaire, or Descartes, are not just atheists, but are haters of principles, especially those which come from any religious directive.