Childhood Reading - a View

“The books of our childhood offer a vivid door to our own pasts, and not necessarily for the stories we read there, but for the memories of where we were and who we were when we were reading them; to remember a book is to remember the child who read that book.”

― Lewis Buzbee, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History

I can still remember the excitement of reading Coral Island when I was a young boy (48 years ago). The book, while having gory parts related to cannibalism, was a very gripping read. Thinking back I can remember the boy I was and my passion for reading. I always loved to go to bed early so that I could read. When I was a teenager, while my friends were out about town, I was in bed with a cake of chocolate, a bag of peppermints, my books and my imagination. I dropped the chocolate and peppermints decades ago but it is still a pleasure to read in bed, bliss!

Ciao

DK

Drive traffic to your Blog

Life without a Kindle...

“Life without a Kindle is like life without a library nearby.”

― Franz S. McLaren, Home Lost

I love the Kindle software on my iPad and the fact that my library is always with me. As a book lover - both physical and eBooks it is great to have both kinds of libraries.

Reading is my top pleasure in life and the comfort of having an extensive digital library at my fingertips is reassuring.

My dear wife now knows that if she wants me to come shopping (to carry the bags at the end) she only has to offer to sit me in a coffee shop with my iPad and I will happily spend hours reading.

Books + Coffee = Peace of MInd.

Ciao

DK

Drive traffic to your Blog

Deschooling Society - Education for Social Control

“School is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need the society as it is.”
– Ivan Illich, “Deschooling Society”

Illich raises a germane point in his quote above. School maintains the social status quo so that people do not question why society is as it is, and who controls it. This is at odds with the concept and meaning of education.

Why is it that regimes burn books? It is because reading sets people free and exposes them to new ideas. We drug our children's minds at school so that they conform and learn not to question. This is why schools are so important to those who control society (the military-industrial-political complex). Schools are needed, not to educate but to control.

This also explains the flak that comes from the establishment when home-schooling is discussed. Home-schooling, deschooling and unschooling all pose a serious threat to the status quo because they turn out engaged and questioning, self motivated learners. I would suggest that any critics reading this post should get out and meet some of these kids. Be prepared to be very scared. These kids are not afraid of adults, do not accept things at face value and are usually not impressed by what conventional society has on offer.

Imagine a generation of children who are not interested in spending hours in front of the TV or playing video games. Who are not exposed to all of the advertising that brainwashes people and contribute to their feelings of inadequacy. How refreshing to talk to young people who are interested and engaged within their communities and families.

They may turn the age...

DK

Drive traffic to your Blog

Charlie Brooker on eBooks

“Until recently, I was an ebook sceptic, see; one of those people who harrumphs about the “physical pleasure of turning actual pages” and how ebook will “never replace the real thing”. Then I was given a Kindle as a present. That shut me up. Stock complaints about the inherent pleasure of ye olde format are bandied about whenever some new upstart invention comes along. Each moan is nothing more than a little foetus of nostalgia jerking in your gut. First they said CDs were no match for vinyl. Then they said MP3s were no match for CDs. Now they say streaming music services are no match for MP3s. They’re only happy looking in the rear-view mirror.”

― Charlie Brooker

What are the pleasures of the eBook that will replace the nostalgia for the written and printed book? Some of my eBook pleasures are as follows:

Longer Reading Times - I can read in bed when my wife has put the lights out.

Portability - my eBooks are with me all the time. I would need a 10 ton truck to carry my physical library around with me.

Quick delivery - eBooks ordered from Amazon arrive almost instantaneously.

You don't lose your bookmarks.

You can change the font size and style - very important as you approach your silver tsunami years.

Feel free to add more in the comments section.

Have a great day.

DK

Drive traffic to your Blog

Virginia Woolf - an Orginal Product of Home Schooling

Born of free thinking parents, Virginia Woolf had an unconventional education mostly provided by her father, an ex Cambridge don. She was given the freedom of his library and as can be seen from her early journals she made good use of this access. Her reading was eclectic and prolific, a habit she kept up for her whole life. Her creativity and breakthroughs in stream of consciousness development were no doubt nurtured by her home schooling, which gave her great freedom.

I wonder how many potential great writers like Virginia Woolf have had their creative flame crushed and extinguished by our school system that caters to conformance and one size fits all?

I am thankful that her parents had the foresight to home school her and let her creativity blossom.

DK

Drive traffic to your Blog

Fuelling my eBook Obsession

I have finally turned the corner and have become an eBook fanatic. I only have one book that I am reading in paper form. This transition has taken many years but I have now stopped buying physical books. Sure I miss having additions for my physical library but I now have a portable library on my iPad that is where I am at anytime. The Kindle App on the iPad is excellent and I just love having instant delivery from Amazon though I do miss the Smiley boxes from Amazon.

I have just pre-purchased the first volume of Robert Frost's Letters as an eBook, delivery due tomorrow.

Long Live the eBook!

DK

Drive traffic to your Blog

Taking Children Seriously as People

"We don't yet know, above all, what the world might be like if children were to grow up without being subjected to humiliation, if parents would respect them and take them seriously as people."
~ Alice Miller

Children are a unique gift to society due to their spontaneity, enthusiasm and curiosity. Parents and grandparents would agree that having children around adds a joyful presence to life. Seeing things through the eyes of a child is like being a child again.

Do we cherish this child's view of the world? For a while we do, but when our children reach a predetermined age we march them off to school where their view is unimportant and the rule, little children should be seen and not heard prevails. School is a humiliating experience for many children - the slow, the divergent thinkers, the gifted, the disabled to name but a few groups of disenfranchised groups within our schooling system. Not all children are ready for formal schooling at the age of 5 or 6. We know that boys mature later and probably don't "fit" into a school environment until the age of 7 or 8. In fact I would argue that none of our children are ever ready for school as it is institutionalized now. Schools are about social control, not education.

What do you think?

DK

Drive traffic to your Blog