Category Archives: Reading

Reading

"Hospital"

Aunt Judy’s going home tomorrow. The hospice stuff should be set up and ready by the time she gets home. We’re sitting here in the hospital waiting room, I’m checking my email, and there’s the latest American Life in Poetry column. The poem’s title? “Hospital.”

American Life in Poetry
By Ted Kooser
U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006
The American poet Elizabeth Bishop often wrote of how places–both familiar and
foreign–looked, how they seemed. Here Marianne Boruch of Indiana begins her poem in
this way, too, in a space familiar to us all but made new–made strange–by close
observation.

Hospital

It seems so–
I don’t know. It seems
as if the end of the world
has never happened in here.
No smoke, no
dizzy flaring except
those candles you can light
in the chapel for a quarter.
They last maybe an hour
before burning out.
And in this room
where we wait, I see
them pass, the surgical folk–
nurses, doctors, the guy who hangs up
the blood drop–ready for lunch,
their scrubs still starched into wrinkles,
a cheerful green or pale blue,
and the end of a joke, something
about a man who thought he could be–
what? I lose it
in their brief laughter.

Reading

"The Rabbit Factory"

I wasn’t sure I wanted to finish “The Rabbit Factory
” after the first 8 pages. The first character we meet — a man dressed as a cartoon rabbit at an amusement park — is beyond unsavory. He’s quickly dispatched, though, and his departure kicks off Marshall Karp’s impressive first novel.

Karp’s protagonists, Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs, are the LAPD detectives assigned to the rabbit murder. They’re well drawn and likable — something you don’t always see in mystery novels. The first killing rapidly leads to a second, and the body count climbs as the book proceeds. It’s not a happy story, but it’s nicely paced and pretty suspenseful.

This is a long book (632 pages), and I think some of it could have been trimmed. One side plot in particular — in which we meet Lomax’s brother — struck me as unnecessary. Overall, though, it was an enjoyable read. I’m looking forward to reading Karp’s next book, “Bloodthirsty.” (Charming title, isn’t it?)

Homeschool, Reading

Homeschooling, socialization and my dad

8 Comments

My sister-in-law homeschools her children, and witnessing their experiences has me convinced that homeschooling is the way to go for us, too. Her kids are extremely bright, and they’re thriving and learning at home in a way that I don’t think would be possible for them in a traditional school setting.

When my dad learned that we’re planning to homeschool Poppy and Pete, though, he was concerned. “How will they learn to socialize?” he asked. “They need to have friends!”

I wasn’t really sure how to respond to that, other than to tell him that they will have friends. There are many co-ops and homeschool groups out there, and the kids will have “extracurricular” activities, too, like music lessons and sports. (Poppy loves her Music Together class, and she’s showing a propensity for soccer.)

I’m pretty sure Dad wasn’t convinced.

Fortunately for me, Rachel Gathercole wrote a book that explains precisely what I was trying to say. “The Well-Adjusted Child: The Social Benefit of Homeschooling” argues that homeschooled children are more equipped to socialize than “schooled” children are, because they’re raised in an age-diverse, family-oriented environment.

Many homeschooling parents “want to teach their children what they consider to be healthy social skills,” Gathercole writes, “rather than send them to learn whatever skills they might happen to learn from their peers.” (Exactly!)

Quite a few parents and homeschooled children also contributed their stories and opinions to the book. A few of their comments stood out to me.

At each age there are things [children] can handle with wisdom and things they cannot. Our public schools inundate children with things they are not equipped to handle. … I believe that our country is assuming that children should be rushed to grow up, and it is hurting them. They are toughening up to it but at a personal cost.
– Janice, homeschooling mother of two

I believe the decay of family unity is at the heart of many of the social problems our culture is facing today. … Peer dependence is the natural outcome of public education because a child has a real and intense need for relationship. When that need for relationship cannot be met by an adult (a teacher who is working with many students), then the child will turn to the only other available person, the peer in the classroom. Consequently, a child comes to value the opinions of his school-age peers more than those of his family because his relationships with his peers are stronger than his relationship with his parents. … Strong family relationships and unity are at the heart of healthy communities — the latter cannot exist in the absence of the former.
– Amy, homeschooling mother of three

[Being homeschooled] was a really comfortable situation, and that led to me being really comfortable with who I am and my choices.
– Madeleine, 20-year-old former homeschool student

I believe that my responsibility as a parent is to help Poppy and Pete to become charitable and responsible adults. And I want them to be able to say that they, too, are comfortable with themselves. My own experience in the public schools tells me that a peer group won’t always promote kindness and responsibility. And, as evidenced by John Hughes’ classic films of the ’80s, public school certainly doesn’t foster comfort in one’s own skin.

So there you are, Dad. If you’re still worried that homeschooling will turn the children into weirdos, pick up Gathercole’s book. She’s done a very nice job compiling evidence that homeschooled kids are by and large well adjusted. Once you’ve finished the book, you can work on resigning yourself to the fact that your grandchildren are going to be a little wacky whether they’re homeschooled or not. You’ve met their parents. There’s no way these kids won’t be goofy.