Notes from the Smithy...
Summer issue, 2010 - #72
GREETINGS/CONTENTS
Hello from Southern Oregon! Summer is in full swing; the garden is growing nicely, and the rains have ceased for a time. The Lord is gracious.
NEWS what’s happening
JUST FOR FUN curious questions
PERSPECTIVE point of view
PICKING A TEXTBOOK some thoughts
RECENT READS a few from me
MISCELLANY as it says
NEWS
The big news for us is that the DVD for Jensen’s Grammar is all filmed and is in the process of being edited. Once we get the master completed, it will be duplicated and distributed. This DVD is a teaching series where I go through each lesson, some more thoroughly than others due to the content. It is designed to help the student grasp the concepts by explaining things orally along with some visuals to make the learning easier. Obviously thousands of students have used the book without the DVD, but the DVD will help moms and students when working through the book. Grammar is not to be feared but to be mastered. Jensen’s Grammar and the DVD will help make that mastery come easier.
You can still email me at
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to get a set of major vocabulary tests for Jensen’s Vocabulary and/or an errata sheet for Jensen’s Punctuation. They are free, but you will have to print them off. I will send them as attachments.
Being of Danish ancestry and from the town of Solvang, California, I am pleased to say that my niece, Heidi Anderson, has been selected to be the Danish Maid at the annual Danish Days celebration this coming September in Solvang. Way to go, Heidi. I may head down there for the festivities. If you are within a couple hundred miles, I could come and speak to a group. It would be free; contact me via email.
JUST FOR FUN
Words are fun. Here are a few questions that play on words. Enjoy the twists.
Why is the third hand on the watch called the second hand?
Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack?
Why do slow down and slow up mean the same thing?
Why do fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing?
Why do tug boats push their barges?
Why are they called stands when they are made for sitting?
Why is it called after dark when it really is after light?
Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected expected?
Why are a wise man and a wise guy opposites?
Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
Why isn’t phonics spelled the way it sounds?
If work is so terrific, why do they have to pay you to do it?
If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?
Why do they call it a TV set when you only have one?
How come abbreviation is such a long word?
PERSPECTIVE
Perspective is point of view or the position from which a person views something. In literature point of view is used in the analysis and criticism of fiction to describe the way in which a reader is presented with the materials of the story. It is the vantage point of the author as he presents the action of the story.
A variety of methods exist for an author. The most common method is the omniscient point of view. Here the author is all knowing and free to comment at any point in the story on motives, thoughts, actions, and so forth; he is not restricted to time, place, or character. The other extreme is a story told from the point of view of a single character as he understood and experienced the story. This is a first person narrative. Such a narrator can be naïve and not comprehend the implications of what he is telling, or he can be thoughtful or very discerning about what is going on. Often this is reflected by some internal monologue as the character’s musings are recorded by the author.
Some authors will choose to have multiple characters tell the story. George R. R. Martin does this. He commonly has five or six different characters telling parts of the story; each chapter is told by one of the characters in no particular order of rotation. It is an interesting method.
I submit that two other perspectives are also at work. The first is the general perspective of the author. In this case I am speaking of the author’s personal view of the world, where he is at on the various issues of life. Terry Goodkind’s philosophy about freedom comes through in his books. David Weber is keen on personal integrity and free enterprise whereas it is obvious he cares little for bureaucratic blundering.
The second is the perspective of you, the reader. You have a worldview. You will like what conforms to your views and won’t much appreciate that which doesn’t. Your perspective is colored by your experience and what you’ve been taught or caught by those around you.
Now that we know what perspective is, how do we recognize it? In literature, it is relatively easy. Just see if the author is making observations from outside a character or if he is limiting himself to recording the actions of others through a particular character. You should be able to identify your own perspective; after all, it is the lens through which you view the world.
The author’s world view may be obvious, or it may be subtle. Sometimes an author is fairly blatant in his views. Louis L’Amour appears to have strong views on right and wrong; the bad guys are dealt with in terms of rope or lead; evil does not pay. There are other threads in his work as well: positive family ties, loyalty to the brand, respect for women, strong individualism, and interestingly enough, evolution. But not all authors are as obvious.
Why is it important to recognize the author’s personal point of view? The simple answer is that it colors his work. For some authors, their world and life view just works itself in naturally. Their characters, what the story is about, and even how the story is told reflect who the author is and what he believes.
Other authors are on a mission. They see their literature as a means to influence their readers. Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was very popular as literature, but its intent was to inflame people against slavery. Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward was a work in praise of a socialist utopia. George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm reflect the opposite opinion by showing socialism as tyranny of the worst sort.
Now we can look back and easily identify those works as propaganda pieces even though they had some literary merit. However, we swim in our own water and don’t always recognize it as such. By which I mean it takes discernment as a reader to figure out what underlying ideas are driving a given story. Is the author a Christian or not? Is the author a conservative or liberal in politics and social behavior? A well told story with characters you like can influence how you view a subject or even change your views. Beware: you are what you read.
PICKING A TEXT
You are at a book fair or conference or maybe sitting at home perusing the catalogs. There are lots of choices. You have questions. Which book will be best for my student? How will I know? You may have fellow homeschoolers who could make a recommendation. Trial and error is both costly and time consuming. Just how do you make a good decision? I submit there are two areas to consider.
First is content. Is the material too easy or too hard? Is the material relevant? Will my student benefit from learning this? Second is presentation. How is the material laid out? Are the explanations clear? Is there a logical sequence in the material? Is there adequate practice to master the material? These questions and others should be raised and answered.
Buying from a catalog description with no prior knowledge of the book presents a challenge, and I really can’t help you much with that. However, let’s assume you have the opportunity to have the book in hand before purchase. Read the table of contents; it will give you some information about what material is covered in the book and at least the order of its presentation. A brief scan through the book will give you an idea of the manner in which it is organized. I well remember being at a curriculum fair some years ago when a fellow and his wife stopped by to look over my books. They said very little, just looked, even when I questioned them a bit. Then they moved on. Toward the end of the show they returned and purchased a copy of almost every book I had. When I asked them why, they said they liked the layout of the information; it seemed logical and well thought out to them.
Certainly having the book in hand is the best. Recommendations from others who have used the books, especially if you know them and their children, can be most helpful. However, if I were to select the ideal situation, it would be to have a short test that was tailored to fit the book I had under consideration. I could give that test to my student and correct it and see if he had the proper background to absorb the text or if he already knew the material well enough to go to a higher level.
When I taught previously there were times when we had placement tests. The students in the school were placed in tracks. There were three tracks as I remember, and a student new to the school was given a short exam. On the basis of performance, the student was directed into a class in the proper track. I should say that the placement of the new student was not set in stone. After a few weeks in the class, the student could be moved to another track, up or down, based on classroom performance.
When I offered a writing class for homeschoolers, I had a brief test for potential students to take. It was essentially a test on sentence construction, grammar, and a bit about organization. If the student had serious problems at the sentence level, there was little point in my mind in trying to teach that student how to organize those sentences into coherent writing. It was a pass/fail sort of thing; failures were given a plan to follow that would build up their sentence skills. It saved both of us time and frustration.
Here’s a very practical test to see if your student needs help with punctuation. Answers? Email me.
What are the FANBOYS? Identify them and give their purpose.
Give three examples of conjunctive adverbs and tell how they affect punctuation in a sentence.
Explain the difference between a sentence fragment, a dependent clause, and an independent clause.
Punctuate the following sentences.
Jack went to the café when he wanted lunch.
Jack went to the café and he ordered lunch.
When Jack went to the store he ordered lunch.
Jack went to the café then he ordered lunch.
Jack went to the café where he ordered a sandwich a drink and a side of fries.
RECENT READS
Men of Iron is a classic tale by Howard Pyle. It is a book about chivalry, friendship, courage, loyalty, and all that. The language takes some getting used to as it was written about a hundred years ago, but it reads well and moves along at a decent pace. It is a book for boys.
Some books are disturbing. Judge Andrew Napolitano’s book, Lies the Government Told You, is such a book. I’ve no reason to doubt what he says in the book is true, but it is disturbing to know that it is true. Nonetheless, I thought it was a good book, and the judge is a pretty good writer.
Robert Heinlein was a classic science fiction writer and included much political satire in some of his books. The Number of the Beast had some of that, but it was more of a comedy. The book was peppered with references to the Mars series by Burroughs and the Lensman series by E.E. Doc Smith. Having read both of those series, I was able to catch many of the references, but that’s not enough reason to recommend the book. Honestly, I wouldn’t read it again even though I generally like Heinlein’s material.
The Best of Fredric Brown is a series of short stories by Fredric Brown. He was a master at the surprise ending. Some are science fiction settings; others are not. Most are quite interesting.
Terry Goodkind’s Confessor is his eleventh and final book in the Sword of Truth series. It was a satisfying conclusion to the series in that right prevailed, and the basic threads of the story were resolved. I enjoyed it.
Children at the Lord’s Table is about the issue of paedocommunion. Cornelis P. Venema argues against it. He identifies four basic arguments made those who make the case for very early communion: church history, reformed confessions, Old Testament evidence, New Testament evidence with emphasis on I Corinthians 11:17-34. The book is nicely organized and quite readable.
Ira Stoll’s book, Samuel Adams, was most interesting. I won’t say it was an easy read, but it was quite informative about the man who was really the father of the US Constitution. My impressions of Sam Adams after reading the book were that he was a devout Christian of the old Congregationalist variety and a staunch patriot. He believed that morality and freedom were inextricably linked, and that the opposites were just as true, tyranny goes hand in hand with immorality and vice.
Through a Screen Darkly is a book about movies. Jeffrey Overstreet is not only a movie buff, he is also a good writer with interesting things to say about the art of movies. The subtitle is “Looking Closer at Beauty, Truth, and Evil in the Movies.” Mr. Overstreet mentions over 200 films in the book, a number of which are films that were not particularly main stream. I appreciated his insights although I’ve personally not seen the bulk of the movies he mentions. Most folks reading the book would have many more points of reference than I did. That notwithstanding, I think this is a very good book for Christians. Some of what he has to say translates to literature, and I liked that. If you have questions about whether Christians should view movies and why, then this would be a good book for you to read.
Finally, just for pure fun, I pulled The High Graders off my bookshelf and spent an evening with Louis L’Amour.
MISCELLANY
1. Excerpts of material from this newsletter may be freely used so long as proper credit is given as to the source. Feel free to copy it and pass it along.
2. This newsletter is posted quarterly on the website, and it is emailed free to those who wish to subscribe. The email version is yours for as long as you want to receive it as long as I continue to publish it.
3. At present I am not scheduled to speak or have a booth anywhere in 2010.
4. I am getting a number of questions via email and a few by phone. I count that as a good thing. I am happy to answer questions. The more specific you are with the question, the more direct my answer will be.
5. The next issue of Smithy Notes is scheduled for distribution sometime in the fall. Hopefully I will have read a few more books, sold some of the ones I publish, and have gotten that grammar DVD into circulation by then.
BY HIS GRACE ALONE,
Frode Jensen
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