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But he really got me on the music stuff. I have very bad taste in music. I know this. I know that Bach is the greatest musical genuis ever,ever and I do enjoy listening to the Brandenburg Concertos . Hey, I am reading Evening in the Palace of Reason. But when I go to relax I am very often found listening to Tony Bennett (gasp), Chris Botti (hiss), or shall I admit it, Ambrosia ( That’s how much I feel for you baby…). I know I am just a product of my culture and bad taste. I know I need to cultivate good taste but there is still just this small little voice that says, “It is after all very subjective and didn’t Billy Joel have classical training? That is why I like him…really, I’m sure of it.”

So Richard Weaver comes down really hard on Jazz music as if were the very worst impressionistic painting. He even talks about syncopation. It is the first lucid conversation I ever heard on the subject. The minute someone starts talking backbeat, all I can visualize is a greasy-haired preacher with a roving eye. Yes, I am jaded. I was born that way. Don’t blame my parents. They really are very nice people although my dad listens to The Four Freshman and my mom jitterbugs in public.

“Jazz, by formally repudiating restraint by intellect, and by expressing contempt and hostility toward our traditional society and mores, has destroyed this equilibrium”

“There can be no question that, like journalism in literature, it has helped to destroy the concept of obscenity.”

In other words, jazz makes what should be hidden and private, front and center and public.”

“And it is admitted that what man expresses in music dear to him he will most certainly express in his social practices.”

Carmon and Kelly are also blogging with us so keep your eyes open for their entries.

Mystie also has a post on her experience with the idea of reflection.

Our degrees have lost their transcendence. We are happy to wave our papers around. We have no concept that an education should make us less satisfied not ever-so-much-more-so.

If you really want to see this in action start up a conversation about getting a liberal arts degree. The vehemence people will show towards this idea is telling. Even Christian homeschooling families reject the liberal arts for utilitarian reasons. But the beauty in the classic

liberal arts degree was its ability to illustrate that there are bigger things, better things, more permanent things. Things beyond the self, the ego.

Kelly begins her post with a letter to an email group describing her feelings upon reading IHC:

“I don’t know how to articulate what this book has done for me, except to say that reading it inspires me to live faithfully to my calling. It can be summed up in Weaver’s statement that “a man’s character emerges in the building and ordering of his house.”

This is precisely how I feel. The book and especially this chapter has made me more aware of how short-sighted I can be.

Weaver builds his case that since, in his opinion, the last metaphysical right is the right to private property, that is where we must take our stand.

Weaver says,

“…especially do we need sanctuary against pagan statism.”

And this my friends is how to raise boys, not by sentiment, not by computer games that stir up all the worst in their natures, not by Victorian moralism. I am no expert. I don’t mean to speak with authority but I want to see homeschooled boys who can quote Shakespeare and hit home runs, boys who can plow the field while reciting Frost, boys who can face terrorists and cross the bar. We ask a lot of our young men these days. We ask them to be men and demand that they behave like women. This may sound like some trite twist on words but it is almost entirely the state in which our young men find themselves.

Poetry is a way to build meaning and chivalry into their souls while letting them maintain their masculinity. Poetry is not about daisy chains but rather about the depths and the heights of meaning.

Pick a poem. Read it out loud everyday this week. Try a little Homer, Shakespeare, Yeats. You sons will need it for the days ahead.

The West Point Cadet’s Prayer says:

“Guard us against flippancy and irreverence in the sacred things of life.”

I have not guarded myself nor my children from those things. I am often shocked at the things my children mock and yet I know they learned it from my husban….Well, they learned it somewhere!

Nonfiction
Trade Books for the Curriculum

2003-2007 

Key take-aways

- Lifetime experiences, like education, engaging occupation, and leisure activities, have been shown to have a major influence on how we age, specifically on whether we will develop Alzheimer's symptoms or not.

- This is so because stimulating activities, ideally combining physical exercise, learning and social interaction, help us build a Cognitive Reserve to protect us.

- The earlier we start building our Reserve, the better; but it is never too late to start. And, the more activities, the better: the effect is cumulative.

AF: What exactly may be going on in the brain that provides that level of protection?

YS: There are two ideas that are complementary. One idea (called Brain Reserve by researchers) postulates that some individuals have a greater number of neurons and synapses, and that somehow those extra structures provide a level of protection. In a sense, we have more "hardware", providing a passive protection against the attacks of Alzheimer's. The other theory (called Cognitive Reserve) emphasizes the building of new capabilities, how people can perform tasks better through practice, and how these skills become so well learned that they are not too easy to unlearn. Like developing new and refined "software".