E is for Erasmus, Education and Einstein


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Today’s Blog is brought to you by the Letter “E”

When I get a little money I buy books; (2)

I think Erasmus and I would have gotten along swimmingly. In fact, my husband, Mr. Himself, says (and he’s right): “If I give Karla $10 to spend on anything at all, she’ll buy a book.” He’s mystified by this phenomenon because he’s not a reader. He wasn’t taught to read phonetically and he also has ADD and dyslexia. These issues have hampered his reading ability his entire life. That’s not to say he isn’t intelligent. Trust me, he’s brilliant. But his inability to decode words is one of the reasons I’m passionate about literacy and learning.

literacy

I think it’s a crime for someone to get an education and graduate without being taught properly how to read. Mr. Himself has a bachelor’s degree. And it was hard-earned. He had to work at least twice as hard as someone else to get that piece of paper, all because schools in his day taught English reading as if it were Chinese.

Chinese%20logosIronically, in Erasmus’s day, very few books were available to people of my economic demographic. Only the very wealthy could afford books and only the very elite of society were able to read. This is how people were kept under the government’s thumb for so long. It’s one reason the Middle Ages is called The Dark Ages. And it’s also the reason Erasmus had very little money left for clothes and food (although, he does look nicely dressed in the picture below, don’t you think?).

holbein-erasmus

I can’t imagine not reading books. Reading has gotten me through many painful periods of my life. It allowed me to escape as a child into worlds I’d never otherwise go. Some of my fondest memories are summers of endless reading, especially at my grandmother’s. She would take me to a local church “basement sale” where I’d paw through boxes of books and pick out a few to take home. It’s where I found my first copy of The Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter. Once I learned to read, I don’t think there’s been a single day when I didn’t read something from a book. Books comfort me. I surround myself with them.

Capturebooks

E is also for Education and I’m an Education fanatic. I love learning, and I’m fascinated with how people learn. I love breaking things down into manageable steps. I’m intrigued by how the mind words. I especially enjoy teaching people who find learning difficult. I find it a personal challenge to figure out how to make things click for a struggling student. That’s why I’m pursuing another degree in Special Education. And I’m proud to inform you that my teacher’s college is #1!

NATL_PR-SocialMedia-FBnewsfeed2_17Jun2014

Did you know that Einstein (E is for Einstein!) was bad at algebra? I am, too. And it’s not that I couldn’t learn it. I did learn it. But I had to learn it a lot slower than other folks. Classes move so fast sometimes that those of us who need more time to grasp and practice a concept get left behind. This shouldn’t be. Everyone should be given the chance to learn at their own pace. It’s not a race.

_Everyone should be allowed to learn at-1 (2)

In the next few weeks I’m going to write about a fairly new and exciting educational concept I’m involved in. I’m eager to share it with you. Education is changing for the better. I can’t wait to be a part of a movement changing the way the world learns and perceives how learning should take place.

But all this education is for naught if we don’t acknowledge our need for wisdom. I always believed this and spouted this to my kids and friends so often they got sick of hearing it:

_You can have a Harvard law degree and (2)

Now, that doesn’t mean I’d turn down one of those law degrees myself. But it does mean that as Christians, the most important knowledge and education we must have is that which is found in the only book that truly matters, God’s Word.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a-3 (2)

Only God’s Word can teach me what is most important to know. Yesterday (Wednesday, November 5, 2014) I finished reading the Bible cover to cover for only the second time in my life. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve studied different parts of the Bible in depth. I’ve taught classes on the Old Testament and the Life of Christ in Seminary. I’ve read the New Testament probably many times. But I’ve only read the entire Bible as a book, beginning to end, twice. I’m ashamed of that. One of my goals is to read it many more times before I die. I begin again tomorrow.

tomorrow

Yes, I love books, and I own hundreds of them and I can’t imagine a life without them. But out of the millions of books and gazillion words written, there is only one book that is TRUTH. And I’m grateful, so grateful, that I can read it.

Birdbooks

Tweet this: You can have a Harvard Law degree and still flunk heaven.

 

 

 

 



Comments 3

  1. Having been out of school for some time now, I do wish I could go back and just learn without the pressure of tests. Memorize and regurgitate is no way to retain. I feel like I missed out on a lot of learning opportunities. Except algebra. Shudder. Math and I never get along.

  2. Agree totally about how books can be a comfort. That’s why it was so difficult for me to finally give in to reading on a Kindle. My husband was happy, though, about not having to rent a UHaul to take my books to the beach with us! When our children moved out, I made myself an office, and it didn’t take me long to fill the shelves I purchased. I had books in every nook and cranny in the house. Finding them was like meeting old friends again after years of being apart.

  3. I didn’t learn algebra well, Karla, until I took it again in community college when I went back to school, so I understand what you’re saying. I love books too—I guess I have to, being a writer! ? But truly, when I taught my children to read, I wanted to share the truth of God’s word with them more than anything else.

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