This project started in a somewhat roundabout way. In the back of my mind for a long time I've been thinking about homeschooling David. There's a fairly big minority of military families that home school their children, especially because all the moving around can create odd gaps in a child's education. I also know a lot of families within the food allergy community that home school their children rather than risk exposure to allergies in a school. So I've been very casually looking into homeschooling methods and theories. One of the methods I've run across is called The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise.
While researching it I came across The Well-Educated Mind. The premise of the book is that anyone can read the great books of the English language (also known as "the canon") if they apply certain reading and writing techniques. Also, her theory is that you should read the great books of a certain category (for example, drama or the novel) in chronological order because the great books that came before it helped create the next great book (so, the plays that came after Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare are, even in some limited way, informed by Romeo and Juliet). Her theory is also that a work of writing cannot be understood completely without understanding the time in which it was written, so by reading in chronological order you understand the history of the world better and enrich your reading and understanding of the world. I'm intrigued by this; it appeals to my English major and education sensibilities.
I decided that since I've got some time before I start homeschooling David (if I do, which, at least for now, is unlikely) that I would buy The Well-Educated Mind for me and if I liked what the author had to say about adult education I would consider buying the homeschooling method later.
I've read all the introductory chapters (about how to read and why) and have really really enjoyed them and have been putting her theories into practice with my reading. It's more work than I'm use to (she recommends writing about what you are reading, including quotes from the book and thoughts about what you've read and setting aside about 30 minutes a day in one block of time in which to read) but I've found that my reading retention is increasing, which I had noticed was a real problem for me.After the introductory chapters Bauer breaks up the rest of the chapters by types of literature: novel, autobiography/memoir, historians/politicians, drama, and poetry. She gives techniques for reading each type of literature and then my favorite part. She includes a well-annotated list of the books that she recommends reading in each category in chronological order. It very well might take me the rest of my life to read all the books she recommends (mostly because there is no way I can devote myself to just reading the books she recommends and ignoring all the other literature I want to read), but I'm going to start trying to read the books she recommends intermixed with other books that I want to read and I've decided to post about it on the blog as I go.
The first book on the novel list is Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes. It'll be awhile before I start (I've got some books that I've promised my husband and my friend Carolyn that I would read, besides my monthly book club book to read), but we already own a copy of the book, so eventually I'll be posting about it.
I'm really excited about doing this.
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