Book worship (was Those pesky competitive feelings)
[email protected]
<<And, I seem to have a secret respect for book-learning
and a secret disrespect for unschooling (at least the media-drenched
parts). And these attitudes are tied to my ankles like a noisy string
of tin cans.
<<Any comforting words? Or, perhaps, a virtual kick in the pants? <g>>>
I couldn't find the original of that, just the really cool responses.
I did want to add that I have plans for a page about the problem of book
worship. I love books myself, and I try to fight that snobbery and prejudice
which is so unfounded about their value over other things.
http://sandradodd.com/books
Look at the bottom.
That (and it partly embarrasses me) is the image I have on my main
unschooling page. I like the idea. It's a colored-up (by me) version of a traditional
(I think) piece of art I've seen in other versions over my life, of knowledge
shown as a tree growing with its roots in and around a book. I have since I
was a teenager had bookplates with that art from Antioch books (so if I make
this a review maybe I'm not so deeply into copyright violation if it is their
special art).
I can understand book worship as an early medieval thing, when a book was
handwritten and nobody would bother unless the information contained were
extremely valuable. But nowadays... that gateway is long gone. And I know Bible
literalists (some were my relatives) who worship the Bible (King Jame's
Version) itself as their one physical link to God, and as the literal, actual word of
literal, actual God, as though it were a personalized autograph. (Brother
John Quincy: love ya, but I'd kill ya in a heartbeat, God) [My uncle who was a
Baptist preacher was named John Quincy, and he was my dad's youngest brother,
and you probably don't have to guess hard what my maiden name was.]
So I think that for some people the awe of universities and higher degrees
and caps and gowns and of the Bible and of people who can read Greek and Latin,
all that gets wadded up in a knot of brain cells that flash "books are
awesome" and put all else in shadow.
Sandra
and a secret disrespect for unschooling (at least the media-drenched
parts). And these attitudes are tied to my ankles like a noisy string
of tin cans.
<<Any comforting words? Or, perhaps, a virtual kick in the pants? <g>>>
I couldn't find the original of that, just the really cool responses.
I did want to add that I have plans for a page about the problem of book
worship. I love books myself, and I try to fight that snobbery and prejudice
which is so unfounded about their value over other things.
http://sandradodd.com/books
Look at the bottom.
That (and it partly embarrasses me) is the image I have on my main
unschooling page. I like the idea. It's a colored-up (by me) version of a traditional
(I think) piece of art I've seen in other versions over my life, of knowledge
shown as a tree growing with its roots in and around a book. I have since I
was a teenager had bookplates with that art from Antioch books (so if I make
this a review maybe I'm not so deeply into copyright violation if it is their
special art).
I can understand book worship as an early medieval thing, when a book was
handwritten and nobody would bother unless the information contained were
extremely valuable. But nowadays... that gateway is long gone. And I know Bible
literalists (some were my relatives) who worship the Bible (King Jame's
Version) itself as their one physical link to God, and as the literal, actual word of
literal, actual God, as though it were a personalized autograph. (Brother
John Quincy: love ya, but I'd kill ya in a heartbeat, God) [My uncle who was a
Baptist preacher was named John Quincy, and he was my dad's youngest brother,
and you probably don't have to guess hard what my maiden name was.]
So I think that for some people the awe of universities and higher degrees
and caps and gowns and of the Bible and of people who can read Greek and Latin,
all that gets wadded up in a knot of brain cells that flash "books are
awesome" and put all else in shadow.
Sandra