Learning Is Lovely

 

“…Grandpa March cultivated the little mind with the
tender wisdom of a modern Pythagoras, not tasking it with long, hard lessons, parrot-learned, but helping it to unfold as naturally and beautifully as sun and dew help roses bloom.”

“Boys at other schools probably learned more from books, but less of that better wisdom which makes good men. Latin, Greek, and mathematics were all very well, but in Professor Bhaer's opinion, self knowledge, self-help, and self-control were more important, and he tried to teach them carefully.”

Jo’s Boys, Life at Plumfield.

We read these quotes the other night and my heart just warmed within me.  They were brought to mind again today as my daughter quietly looked over her science pages for the day.  How dry facts and dates and monotonous explanations of how things work can be.  How extraordinary and delightful the journey of discovery where a child can find the study of atoms and molecules not dry and boring, but fascinating!  The motto of our curriculum is; “The way you wish you’d been taught.  Guaranteed.” Oh, how it’s proven true time and time again. 

My daughter makes a knowing exclamation as she reads about how atoms are made up of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom.  At no time is the word H20 referenced.  She looks up with her eyes shining and says; “I think I know why water is called H20.” 

“Oh?” I say.

“Yes.  The H stands for hydrogen, the 2 stands for 2 Hydrogen atoms and the O stands for 1 oxygen atom.” 

“That’s exactly right.”  I smile.

No one had to tell her bare facts, she deduced it herself with a brain that has been taught to unveil facts and truths by observation and discovery.

And for the record, my eyes lit up with their own wonderful discovery as I read over her lesson as well.  Did you know that the number of atoms within ONE grain of sand is comparable to the grains of sand on an entire beach?

Natural Frequency

Fascinating. Did you know that if you hold down the sustain pedal on a piano and sing a note, the piano string of that note will "play" off the vibrations of your voice?

If you can sing very loudly at the natural frequency of a glass (the sound it makes when it is tapped or caused to vibrate) you can cause the glass to shatter, we have seen this alluded to, but did you know, that in 1940 the Tacoma Bridge in the USA collapsed because the wind made it vibrate at its natural tendency? Soldiers do not march in step across bridges, in case their footsteps make the bridge vibrate at it's natural frequency.

This immediately brought Jericho to mind!!! Wild stuff.

Remembrance

Conveniently just wrapping up World War II studies today, on this day of Remembrance. My heart was just wrung reading about the horrors of post world war demographics. One thing that hit me especially hard was this;

"The most immediate problem was what to do with the millions of people the war had uprooted. In Germany, there were five and a half million Soviet citizens who needed to be sent home. Among them were soldiers who had fought for the Nazis and faced certain execution at home. But, with a cruel logic, the Soviet authorities decided that many of the others, who had survived captivity as prisoners of war and slave workers, were traitors too. So they returned home to long prison sentences."

So sad. So sobering. So heart rending.

In closing, a trivia question. During World War II Russia suffered 25 million military and civilian deaths. What percentage of Soviet men, aged 19-23 survived the war? 3%. 6%. 9% or 12%?

Auschwitz Horrors

We are getting lots of glimpses into hell on earth as we study WWII. I learned something new today. Why shave the hair off of the people you are just going to gas and cremate? I always just assumed it was to prevent lice and other atrocities in the bunkers, but there is another very disturbing element involved here that I had never heard before. The hair was shaved off of ALL the prisoners, even those that were in line for immediate extermination and the hair was not disposed of, it was used for a practical purpose that about chilled the blood in my veins. Any ideas what?

Teddy Bear History

The Teddy Bear is named after a famous person who loved real bear cubs. Know who?