The Well-educated mind: Chapter 2 - The mechanics of reading

In the first section of this chapter the author discusses the idea of the death of print media.  She claims that while reading to gather data might some day be wholly replaced by the internet serious reading will never be replaced.  To be enlightened about a topic one must read seriously.  Precise, evocative words and complex, difficult sentences are required.  If you have difficulty with this you must first question whether or not you have actual difficulty with the mechanics of reading or if you expect it to be as easy as information gathering.

On the one hand she has a point.  A well-thought out book, carefully researched and edited, truly can convey so much more than a quick online article.

On the other hand, I'm reading this book, and most others these days, on an e-ink device (a second-gen Nook to be precise)

I believe it is that which surrounds the act of reading, of sitting down in a quiet space and taking the time to really understand the words and the author that matters here, less so the actual physical thing you hold in your hand.  While a personal library is a treasure for the ages reading on a Kindle or Nook or tablet isn't the end of the world.

The second section opens with a reading test, to determine if you are mechanically and mentally capable of embarking on a didactic course.  Even if you are slow so long as you are capable you can do this.  The serious reader is not attempting to assimilate a huge quantity of information as quickly as possible, but to understand a few many-sided and elusive ideas.  To that end speed reading is discouraged.  She uses examples from Aristotle and Jane Austin vs. a clip from People as examples of situations where speed reading should and should not be applied.  She closes the section with a few tips for the adequate mechanical readers out there; to use your finger to keep your place, to scan difficult paragraphs for unknown words before you begin, and to remember that it gets easier with practice.

This is a particularly difficult one for me.  So many things to do in a day, so many things sucking my attention, it makes it difficult to sit and focus, even though I am quite capable.  I read some of the Great Books back in high school, before the true Internet existed but with a romping case of PTSD going.  I actually can focus now, which is why I'm trying again.

The final section offers advice for those who truly do have mechanical difficulties with reading.

I am mechanically capable, so I skipped this section.

Goal, to work on this more than once a week so as to get to the actual work faster.  Also, bonus!  Found a use for some of my clipart collection

Placemats Round 1

I am not entirely certain that I like these.  I found the nine-patch blocks in my closet already strip-pieced, and badly, from way back probably two moves ago.  I wanted to do something with them but every other setting looked wrong.  The dark blue was the only thing even tolerable.  Still not 100% on them, but I now have four, which will at least replace some we have that are literally falling to tatters.

They're not done, they still need binding.  I'm debating a bright yellow to brighten it back up or dark blue to wash my hands of it.  Now that I see them done I like the thought of the yellow, but we shall see what they have in the shops.  Anyway, setting them aside until I have bias tape.  I'll post again and check them off when they're done.

Thankfully I have more blues and yellows in the box, eventually I'll sort something much more French Country than this.

We interrupt this project

To throw in another small project just because it needed doing.

I realized my desk coasters were looking horrific the other day.  Considered quilting new ones but decided I didn't want to work that hard.  Considered knitting new ones but decided I didn't want to work that hard.  Two evenings (which could have been one were it not for the tennis elbow) later I had two new coasters.

The pattern is Spiral Hotpads by  Carol Schoenfelder.  Done in either Sugar'n'Cream or Peaches'n'Cream, not a clue which since these were scraps from the bottom of the cotton yarn pile.  I suspect both are Sugar'n'Cream, one in Over The Rainbow the other in Winterberry since I tend to buy that brand more often, but I make no promises on that.  I only went through row 5 of the pattern, which is a little large for my coffee mug but it gives a little room for shrinkage as cotton yarn will do.  Granted I plan to hand rinse any spills out to keep the colors bright as long as possible.

And now back to the mitts I still need to finish. 

New pink shirt

Which is a lovely, light almost lawn with a print of little pink and lavender flowers on an ivory background.  In order to accommodate losing weight while still having a lipodema deposit below my waist I had to let it out at the bottom, but thankfully I saved the scraps for quilting so I had the material to match. In order to accommodate losing weight I had to take it in at the top with tucks under the arms and at the neckline.  Four little ivory buttons down the top tuck made it look like a design feature.  I also added an ivory bias tape facing because this is a remade shirt and my original hem was not holding up.

But I love it.  It's pretty, soft, delicate and will be very comfortable for summer.

As an aside, I really hope the husband can get our camera to talk to my computer this week.  iPad pictures are just not the best.  If so I'll replace this one.

The Well-educated Mind: Chapter 1 - Training your mind

In the first section of this chapter the author reminisces about her grad school experience, then goes on to say that you can have a similar experience at home, without being shackled to the academic system.  All you need are a shelf full of books, a congenial friend or two who can talk to about your reading, and a few "chasms of time not otherwise appropriated".  She goes on to give examples of both male and female historical figures who self-taught their way to a liberal arts education.

Unfortunately she doesn't say what to do when you don't have a congenial friend handy.  Otherwise I think her idea is a sound one.


In the second section she asks the question "What if your mind is hungry but not particularly literate?".  She talks about how most adults today feel they are incapable of serious, sustained reading, and how for many it is simply a matter of discipline.  She uses examples such as running a marathon to show that being able to read at the standard 8th-10th grade level used in newspapers and on news sites is equal to running around the backyard.  Assume that because you know the mechanics of running you can run a marathon and you are bound to rail.  Self-teaching requires preparation, diligence and patience.

Of course diligence and patience also require practice.  But that's why we're here, no?


In the third section she introduces the Trivium method of home learning.  She claims that learning progresses through three distinct stages:  Grammar, or learning basic facts and processes, Logic, or learning to apply analytical skills to the facts before you, and Rhetoric, or learning how to express your opinion on the matter.  She claims that most people, or at least most Americans today, jump right to the Rhetoric stage, forming an opinion on the material before the facts are known or have been determined to be accurate and applicable.  To her learning to learn requires learning how to go through each step in order when presented with new material.  To tackle a course in reading successfully we have to retrain our minds to grasp new ideas by first understanding them, then evaluating them, and finally forming our own opinions.

The Trivium concept is her shtick, based (she claims) on the Socratic method or some such.  If you pull the cute names out, call it acquiring facts, analyzing facts and reporting results or some such, it might be easier to grasp.  To me it's a way of applying scientific thought to the study of liberal arts.


The final two sections speak to how to begin and how to schedule your practice.  She uses historical examples and in the case of scheduling her own experience to back up her claims that it is best to work on one subject at a time, beginning with learning this process, and to take any topic in historical order, starting with the foundations and working your way to the current time.  And she says  to make this practice a priority by getting to it as early in the day as possible so the mind is not too tired to do the work.

I heartily agree with reading early in the day.  I know I have found that later in the day I'm too tired to attempt anything challenging.  I also agree with starting with the historical basis, in some categories.  My concern is that those who start with the Ancient Greek rarely make it up to WW II, especially in history and fiction, and asking people who are having trouble with diligence and patience to read something as foreign to our minds as the Ancients is setting one up for failure.  I would suggest, and plan for myself, to start with a plan that gives a broad overview of the current state of a topic before delving deeply into the history, to give one a chance to work up to the more difficult works, and to allow one to see the relevance as you then work forward through the masters.

As an example, later in the book she gives recommended lists of what to read in each topic.  For Drama her last play suggested is Equuis, written by Peter Shaffer in 1974.  This book was published in 2003, apparently no one wrote any good plays in those 30 years.

Here's an example of plays she somehow missed:

Whose Life Is It Anyway? by Brian Clark- 1979
Children of a Lesser God by Mark Medoff - 1980
Amadeus by Peter Shaffer - 1981
"Master Harold"...and the Boys by Athol Fugard - 1982
'night, Mother by Marsha Norman - 1984
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet - 1985
Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton - 1987
Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare - 1991
Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel - 1992 
Angels in America by Tony Kushner - 1993

All of which came out well in advance of the books publication.

Keeping that in mind we will move forward.

On reading and writing

So I'm reading The Well-Educated Mind and at the end of Chapter 3 for the author talks about keeping a reading journal.  The thing is, I suck at keeping journals.  I'm better at keeping things on computer and much better at doing things where there might be some sort of public accountability involved.

So expect to see book related blog posts.  Summaries in black, and opinions in berry, following what she suggests at the end of Chapter 3.

How to store your stash, pt 1

Start with a giant pile of fabric vomiting out of the closet.

Add in a pile of comic book boards

A bunch of small pins and two afternoons worth of ironing and folding and you get...

Much better

Yes there is still work to do.  You don't want to see the notions on the other side and there are bins of fabric under there that need to be sorted and more little bits for scrap patchwork than I care to consider that are probably all going to do into the hexagon quilt.

But it's a very, very good start.

The boots theory

“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”  

― Terry Pratchett Men at Arms: The Play

Chop day

One of the big changes we've had to make is a lot more organic whole foods in our diet.  Not that we we weren't already on this road but we've thrown ourselves into 100% because it helps the pituitary symptoms.  So on chop day my husband rides to the store while I completely clean the kitchen.  When he comes back I'm faced with this:

That adds up to:

2 avocados
1 bunch radishes
1 bunch scallions
14 mini peppers
4 onions (not the whole bag)
3 stalks celery
4 carrots
2 tomatoes
6 mushrooms
1 head lettuce

All of which will be chopped, vacuum stored and used over the next 4 days.  I will also be filling that big crock pot with beans for meals for the week.

I got the idea from Tamar Adler.  Her book An Everlasting Meal is coming up next on my to-read list.  But the videos alone are inspiring.

How to stride ahead, Pt 1

How to stride ahead, Pt 2

(And thank you Google for only linking YouTube.  Bah!)

The basic idea is to  cook or prep your vegetables as soon as you get them home, in that way you're more likely to use them and it speeds up cooking time, meaning you're more likely to cook whole meals at home.  I've found that to be true, pre-preping take a good 30-45 minutes off your cooking time.  And when you get one of those cook in x number of minutes cookbooks which never seem to be that quick, try subtracting the time it takes to clean and chop all the veggies and you might find that it's a lot closer.  I think the chefs who write them don't take into account the time it takes their assistants to prep for them

That was the before.  This is the after:

On the left are the peppers, onions and mushrooms for tomorrow night's pizza.  The mushrooms are sliced and in a bag so they won't get slimy.  Moving clockwise the four bowls are peppers, tomato, sweet onion and avocados to top the beans and rice tonight.  We'll chop the avocado at the last minute to avoid browning.  The three jars across the top are onions, carrots and celery for the soup on Tuesday.  The four mason jars and bag are radishes, peppers, red onion, scallions and lettuce for our lunch salads for the week.  And in front are an Anaheim pepper, yellow onion and garlic for tonight's beans.  I've found that coffee filters make great prep bowls if you're going to use things that night.   I forgot to cut up the cauliflower to go with the roast chicken on Monday, I'll do that while I cook the vegetables for the beans.

And so our menu for the week is as follows:

Friday - Moroccan chicken soup (leftover from last week)
Saturday - Black beans and rice
Sunday - Vegetarian pizza
Monday - Roast chicken and Roast cauliflower
Tuesday - Classic chicken soup and Quinoa

Breakfasts are always some kind of grain porridge (oatmeal, brown rice or millet) and scrambled eggs.  Lunch is always salad.  Snacks are apples and cheese, yoghurt and granola or milk and a Luna protein bar. 

And that is our food story for this week

Edited to add:  Dinner tonight was so pretty I had to share