Brief commentary on Christmas, and Writing & Education issues

Hope the holidays have been wonderful for all readers. We enjoyed some family time at home, then drove to my parents' house for more presents and yummy food. My sister-in-law brought some of the same appetizers that she brought last year. I'd forgotten all about them until I gazed upon them in the kitchen: guacamole and a taco dip, kind of a seven-layer thing. She couldn't have chosen a more saliva-producing spread for me. I scooped up guacamole until I truly couldn't eat any more of it. Yum.

Today the children are playing with some of their gifts, concocting elaborate scenarios with some Playmobil they received. I love that stuff. It's food for the imagination like nothing I've ever seen. I had Fisher Price people with the barn, the schoolhouse, the plane, the house. That was great stuff, too, and I managed to compose some great stories with Barbies and Breyer horses, galloping to someone's rescue, or escaping something fearful. But Playmobil just goes on and on, encouraging nonstop creativity.

I'm getting ready for my New Year's resolutions. I don't really make a list, but it's definitely a time of year when I tend to get a little more motivated and eager to tackle more. I hope that happens this year. I could use a little eager motivation.

[slight shift of subject matter, though it loosely connects through my motivation in writing--if I spent a little time on a transition, I could make it work. But lacking motivation, as I have already cited, I'm just going to take this parenthetical approach]

Recently I read these statements in a book about writing: "Americans and their culture are now significantly 'dumbed down.' Having said that, let me immediately recognize and point out the exception: that is, a few thousand American English majors and writing students have been taught by elementary teachers to be expressive. They have been read good books and learned to love them. They have been guided by high school teachers to make connections between the stories and poems they read and the stuff of their own lives. They have been taught to stand apart from both life and literature enough so they can make judgments based on their own tastes.

"But they are the exception. Most Americans have been 'dumbed down'...As the secretary of education under Richard Nixon said, if this low level of American schooling had been laid on us by a foreign country we'd have gone to war against that country." (p. 4, Beyond the Writers' Workshop, by Carol Bly)

She goes on to point out that most children don't learn about conceptual thinking, connective principles behind data (though they may memorize the data), and can't identify the organizing principles behind information. Some even graduate from high school illiterate. The other day our newspaper printed a report about the low comprehension of college graduates.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051226/NEWS06/512260409&SearchID=73230752363581

All of this has me thinking about my children, their education, their ability to be expressive, make those connections and enjoy great literature. How are they doing?

She also observed that people who want to write read "astonishingly" few books. This leaves a would-be or beginning writer reading only for "sense impression" rather than "for the ancient balance of both sense impression and contemplation. The mix of sense impression and consulting one's own mind is an acquired taste that comes from reading literature." This has me thinking about my own "continuing education," if you will. Am I reading enough of the right literature for an ongoing mix of sense impression and consultation of my own mind? What does that mean for the writer-reader? Should I develop a reading plan? Should I be reading more in the genre I'm attempting to write? Should I gather people with whom I can discuss the books I'm reading? How can I maximize personal literacy?

Then she said something that humbled me even more. She referred specifically to creative writing teachers, but it could apply to writers, as well: [they] "are horribly ignorant of the sciences--not just of the abstract, conceptual sciences such as physics and chemistry, but even of the descriptive sciences such as botany and biology."

Uh oh. I'm a stranger to most scientific concepts and vocabulary. I fit that description in most areas. From the classes and conferences I've attended, I remember being told many times that one must be specific. A writer should not write that a character leaned against a tree trunk; rather, the character should lean against a sugar maple trunk, or a shagbark hickory. A girl should watch a monarch butterfly ascend from the prairie grass, not a butterfly. I wouldn't do so well if someone in my writing needs to stare up at Orion or Cassiopea. I'd spell it wrong or have them facing the wrong direction in the wrong hemisphere. I don't understand black holes enough to refer to them with confidence. There was a time when I tried to read up on such things after being inspired by Madeleine L'Engle. She's an amateur scientist who researched physics (among other things) simply as a curious human being and a writer. Her research wove through her award-winning science fiction.

Finally, in this early chapter that made such an impression on me, Bly pointed out our diminished vocabulary, even the extinction of language in our culture. I've seen this in myself. As I've been reading and studying, I have been keeping a page of vocabularly words. I am running across so many words I don't know. As a reader, I must have gone through a season of limiting myself to simpler books. Now that I'm trying to challenge myself a little more with classics, I am stopping on words I'm not sure about. It's time to invest in a better dictionary.

As a writer I have a casual style as do many contemporary authors, and a casual style doesn't require advanced, multi-syllabic expressions. This, too, may be a reason I find myself uncomfortable with her observations--I may be a person of diminished vocabulary realizing my inferiority. Maybe it doesn't bother most people to think they may have a dimished vocabulary. Our IM, emoticon method of communicating may threaten nuance and specificity more and more. In 40 years, we'll be speaking in nothing but acronyms, KWIM?