I've moved 18 times in my life, 15 of them since I left my childhood home. I was one of those kids that went from kindergarten to sixth grade at the same school, all three years of junior high at the same school, and ditto with high school. It wasn't until I became an army wife that moving became a regular event in my life.
Civilian friends who could not comprehend the military lifestyle asked me if I liked moving, whether I missed my friends and family. The answer to both is yes. Well, actually, it wasn't the moving itself I liked, it was "having moved." I learned to enjoy the sense of adventure, particularly since many of those moves involved going overseas to locations that, given my prairie town childhood, seemed incredibly exotic -- Germany, Japan, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the ability to travel in those areas of the world. I would have missed learning so much, seeing all those places, meeting so many interesting people, making lasting friends. I would have missed learning a smattering of several languages and becoming fluent in spoken German. I would have missed the opportunity to learn new arts and crafts, to photograph things I would never have even seen any other way.
Of course I missed my family, particularly during the first overseas tour of duty in Germany, the farthest I had ever been from my family. I was fortunate that my husband's German family was close by and welcomed me with open arms.
Of course I missed my friends, but I tried my best to stay in contact with them, just as I did with those newer friends I made along the way.
I just went through a long and complicated move and hope to stay put for years now, but still take trips around the world. At a certain point, moving becomes too physically demanding without a lot of help.
I'm looking forward to new friends here, and I hope the old ones all come to visit. I'm looking forward to new discoveries. I grew up in a fine place. I lived in many.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Photo of the Day - Hibiscus
This beautiful bloom was one of many unusual varieties of hibiscus I photographed at Busch Gardens in Tampa.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
A Favorite Quote - Burke on Compromise
All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter. -- Edmund Burke
Observation - Men and Small Sports Cars
My husband was admiring a BMW sports car, another one of those small cars like the Miata that seem like toys next to a regular sedan. I remarked that I didn't understand why a large man who wanted to show off his masculine affinity for a fast automobile and his well-padded wallet would choose the smallest car he could find -- and the hardest ones to get in and out of.
Photo of the Day - Yellow Flower and Insect
Here's another one I can't identify without help. This bright yellow flower grows on the prairie. I managed to catch an insect on it.
Monday, January 29, 2007
A Favorite Quote - Jefferson on Honesty and Wisdom
Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. -- Thomas Jefferson
Photo of the Day - Seaweed on the Beach
Walking on Anna Marie Island in Florida, late in the day as the sun was setting, I came across many varieties of seaweed which had washed ashore and been left by the receding tide. The many colors were a surprise. They ranged from light to bright and deep shades of yellow, green and maroon. Here is one example.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
A Favorite Quote - Mark Twain on Lies and Truth
A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. -- Mark Twain
Thursday, January 25, 2007
A Favorite Quote - Pearl S. Buck on Doing Right
You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings. - Pearl S. Buck
Photo of the Day - Shell Fountain - Atlantis Resort
The Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas is full of arresting architectural details (for those than can tear themselves away from the beach or casino). This fountain captivated me, with the black stone ball that turned continuously as the water poured over it, and the delicate colors of the shell basin.
Learning to Use Computer Dictation Software - A Humbling Experience
We thought it would be great to be able to "simply" dictate words into a word processor, so we got a program to do it. I read that it was critical to do the voice recognition passages so that the program would learn one's voice and get the words right, and I dutifully read some passages, but was anxious to try it out "for real." I did pretty well, but never having had to do dictation for a secretary or dictaphone in past years, it was a challenge to realize I had to tell it when to capitalize, put in punctuation, etc. Worse, though, was learning how to correct the inevitable mistakes in "understanding."
What was really fascinating was watching the words march across the "page" in the document without me having to touch the keys. Seeing it take shape made it a lot easier to remember when to say, for instance, "comma" or "paragraph."
My husband thought this was going to be easy. He had heard our son talking about how great it was, and he didn't see any need to read the instructions. He did read the practice passages, but it seems to have a very hard time understanding him. He does have a bit of an accent, but it's not that pronounced. I asked him whether he had read the instructions. Of course not!
It turned out that he had the microphone plugged in wrong, hadn't calibrated it, hadn't set it as the input device, and was talking into the wrong side of it. On top of that, he decided to import songs into iTunes at the same time, and that created an audio input that seemed to "compete" with his voice input and inserted words from the songs interspersed with what he was trying to dictate. The results were hilarious!
Ahh, these wonderful inventions. If we can only master them!
What was really fascinating was watching the words march across the "page" in the document without me having to touch the keys. Seeing it take shape made it a lot easier to remember when to say, for instance, "comma" or "paragraph."
My husband thought this was going to be easy. He had heard our son talking about how great it was, and he didn't see any need to read the instructions. He did read the practice passages, but it seems to have a very hard time understanding him. He does have a bit of an accent, but it's not that pronounced. I asked him whether he had read the instructions. Of course not!
It turned out that he had the microphone plugged in wrong, hadn't calibrated it, hadn't set it as the input device, and was talking into the wrong side of it. On top of that, he decided to import songs into iTunes at the same time, and that created an audio input that seemed to "compete" with his voice input and inserted words from the songs interspersed with what he was trying to dictate. The results were hilarious!
Ahh, these wonderful inventions. If we can only master them!
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
A Favorite Quote - Einstein on Insanity
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein
Photo of the Day - Feathery Growth on Bamboo Stem
At the Gamble Plantation in Sarasota, Florida, we were fascinated by a grove of very tall bamboo. The oldest canes were covered by lichen and the "joints" of the bamboo sections had heavier growths that looked like small, leafy plants. This one was much larger, about four inches across. It was delicate and unusual.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Photo of the Day - Flowers - Morning Glories?
Oddly enough, though I especially enjoy photographing flowers, I don't know the names of the varieties or much of anything about growing them. Although these look like "morning glories" to me, I don't know if they actually are, and I photographed them late in the afternoon. Do they bloom then? These were growing in the wonderful garden at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia, last May.
Monday, January 22, 2007
A Favorite Quote - Douglas Adams on "Foolproof"
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams
Photo of the Day - Red and Green Peppers
Sometimes I think we miss the everyday beauty around us because it is "ordinary." We go to the fruit and vegetable stand to pick out groceries and don't see the marvelous color, variety and composition of the baskets, bins and trays of produce, and most of the time, probably don't have a camera with us (except perhaps a cell phone camera these days). I happened to have my camera with me when we stopped at a local market stand and found myself fascinated by the photo possibilities. This bin of peppers begged to be photographed.
The Power of Story
People have been telling each other stories since language began. Before it was written, there were storytellers. Today, we have many kinds of storytellers, from oral storytellers telling everything from folktales to memorized literature, to writers who write their stories in books, movies, television, radio, tapes, and even on interactive computer software. We are addicted to stories in every form, whether neighborhood gossip, picture books, novels, the evening news, talk shows, or those daydreams in our heads. We tell ourselves stories. And stories are meant to be shared. Coming together to share a story is one of the oldest ways people have enjoyed themselves. What is visiting with friends but sharing our own stories. The love of stories is "built in."
If we were looking for a way to describe people as different from animals, we could do well by naming homo sapiens "the storytellers." And for stories, two things are prime ingredients: imagination and persistence. There can be no story without an imagination that thinks, "What if . . . ?" No story without the persistence to keep honing the words and telling it.
One of the marvels of being human is that ability to imagine and communicate stories, good stories, ideas that hook the listener or reader. How about those books you just couldn't put down? The books your children begged you to read, "one more time"? The TV show you couldn't turn off? The daydream that took you far away, so far, you didn't hear what was going on around you?
So, let us enjoy and appreciate the magic and joy of shared stories, to become a part of that human experience, to hear other storytellers, other voices, other places, other times. Through story we can experience the past, the future, the joys and sorrows of others, imaginary places and creatures, tall tales and true. We can participate in the stories of our shared culture, and those of other cultures. We can learn about the world around us, from the sorrows to the joys, the arts to the sciences. We can find that we are not alone in our fears and problems, that there is joy and laughter somewhere in the world, that there are people like us and people who are different. We can learn our human language.
If we were looking for a way to describe people as different from animals, we could do well by naming homo sapiens "the storytellers." And for stories, two things are prime ingredients: imagination and persistence. There can be no story without an imagination that thinks, "What if . . . ?" No story without the persistence to keep honing the words and telling it.
One of the marvels of being human is that ability to imagine and communicate stories, good stories, ideas that hook the listener or reader. How about those books you just couldn't put down? The books your children begged you to read, "one more time"? The TV show you couldn't turn off? The daydream that took you far away, so far, you didn't hear what was going on around you?
So, let us enjoy and appreciate the magic and joy of shared stories, to become a part of that human experience, to hear other storytellers, other voices, other places, other times. Through story we can experience the past, the future, the joys and sorrows of others, imaginary places and creatures, tall tales and true. We can participate in the stories of our shared culture, and those of other cultures. We can learn about the world around us, from the sorrows to the joys, the arts to the sciences. We can find that we are not alone in our fears and problems, that there is joy and laughter somewhere in the world, that there are people like us and people who are different. We can learn our human language.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
A Favorite Quote - Barker on the Future
"No one will thank you for taking care of the present if you have neglected the future." --Joel A. Barker
Photo of the Day - Seagulls in Flight
During an evening stroll along the beach at Anna Marie Island on Florida's Gulf Coast, we happened upon a large flock of seagulls. There were at least three different species with distinctive bills, feather color patterns, and sizes. It was fascinating to watch their behavior. A woman happened along with some bread to feed them and she was able to get them hovering in the air above us. This was literally just feet above our heads and there were many birds. I was amazed how well they could stay in once place for short periods before having to fly forward, up or sideways. Even so, it was difficult to catch them on camera. One of the things I noted when looking at the resulting photos was the ways in which they curve and shape their wings. When we see birds in flight, we (or at least those of us not knowledgeable about birds) thing of them soaring, or "flapping" their wings, but these photos showed me many new factors of bird flight.
It was beautiful to watch them in the sunset, whether on the beach or in the air. We also saw many sandpipers, two pelicans taking breathless simultaneous dives into the water, and a school of dolphins offshore.
The Demands of Blogging
One reason I didn't start a blog long ago was time. I knew it would take time to keep a blog going, and I didn't want to be one of those who start and then let it sit there with nothing new added. Now I see it's been days since I've added an observation or opinion post, though I'm keeping up with the photos and quotes. It's not for lack of ideas. Those are with me in abundance. However, priorities keep getting shifted by life both online and beyond the confines of the office and keyboard. And, sometimes it's just time to go enjoy life. More about that with the Photo of the Day.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Photo of the Day - Arches at Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas
In the Gulf of Mexico west of Key West lie small islands called the Dry Tortugas, "dry" because they have no source of fresh water but rain. On one of them, the US built a fortress beginning in 1846, called Fort Jefferson. The Dry Tortugas are now a national park which can only be reached by boat or plane. See the link under "For Curious Minds" to learn more. This photo is looking through a series of arches under the heavy fortress walls.
Friday, January 19, 2007
A Favorite Quote - Washington on Government
"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master."
-- George Washington, speech of January 7, 1790
-- George Washington, speech of January 7, 1790
Photo of the Day - Kansas River
This is a view of the Kansas River (often called the Kaw River) near Manhattan, Kansas, in November. The river is full of sandbars which hindered navigation during the pioneer days. In fact, the town of Manhattan was established when a riverboat of settlers that planned to go farther upstream got stuck on a sandbar in 1855.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
A Favorite Quote - Pickford on Failure
"If you have made mistakes, even serious mistakes, there is always another chance for you. And supposing you have tried and failed again and again, you may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down." --- Mary Pickford, 1892-1979
May none of us ever "stay down"!
May none of us ever "stay down"!
Photo of the Day - Cottonwood Seeds & Fluff
Am I the only person to photograph cottonwood seeds and fluff? I started photographing cottonwood trees and their "parts" (bark, leaves, seeds, "cotton" and roots) when I needed the details for book illustrations I was working on but discovered that there are very few such photos on the web. My photos were purchased for use by the Kansas State Historical Society and a Canadian publisher for use in educational and consumer publications. I didn't manage to catch the cottonwood fluff flying in the wind in late May, though.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Favorite Quote - Albert Einstein
"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."
--- Albert Einstein
--- Albert Einstein
Photo of the Day - Konza Prairie
The rolling prairie of the Flint Hills of Kansas is beautiful year-around, with changing colors in the leaves, grasses and wildflowers and the incredible dome of the sky. The hiking trails wind up across the ridges and through valleys. This photo was taken in October.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Global Warming - A Brush Fire Analogy
A few days ago I saw a politician arguing about global warming on an evening news show. He didn't dispute that there was "climate change" or that the earth was warming. What he did insist was that there was no definitive evidence that humans were causing the phenomenon and that therefore it wasn't up to us to do anything about it.
Last week I attended a forum about international efforts in alternative energy forms during which a scientist showed a dramatic and frightening graph of the current warming "trend" along with past warming and cooling cycles of the earth for a long span of geological time. What made this one stand out was not only the steepness and speed of the temperature ascent but the height of it and the astonishingly greater amount of CO2 in the air.
We can argue about the causes. We can blame it on the earth itself, but even if we are in one of the earth's periodic warming cycles, it seems to me that the evidence that we are exacerbating it and making it happen far faster is hard to defy.
Humanity has it without our power to do something to slow this progression, and if we don't, we deserve the ugly fate that awaits us. The trouble is, it won't be "us" who suffer the brunt of it. It will be our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Let's try this analogy. If I discovered that somehow a brush fire had started on a hill behind my house, which would be the better course of action? A. Figure out how to slow it's progress, or B. Throw some more brush on it and say that I didn't start it anyway so there's no point in trying to slow it down.
Without our willingness to conserve, use less energy, develop alternative energy forms that contribute less to the warming trends, and stem the rising population of the earth; without our willingness to be good stewards of the resources we depend upon, we risk losing many of the wonders around us, natural and manmade. We risk dwindling water supplies, lower crop production, fiercer competition for scarcer resources, and ultimately, beyond the danger of climate changes, the danger of political instability and strife.
Why is population a part of this picture? Because each one of us consumes resources, and everything we consume, whether it is food, goods, heating, cooling, housing, transportation, and yes, using the internet, requires energy. The more of us, the more energy is needed, and right now, that energy is coming from sources that are, in the end, heating up our planet.
I am incredibly fortunate. I live in a beautiful place which provides me much joy in the natural environment. I am blessed with reasonably good health. Unlike the members of our military forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and people living in many war-ridden places around the globe, I do not daily face injury or death and am able to peacefully pursue my life. I have a close and loving family. The technology that I enjoy using -- much of which requires electricity like this computer, enriches my life.
I'd not only like to keep it that way, I'd like my grandchildren to be as fortunate. I hope we can get our government and businesses to take their heads out of the CO2 cloud and care about the future.
Last week I attended a forum about international efforts in alternative energy forms during which a scientist showed a dramatic and frightening graph of the current warming "trend" along with past warming and cooling cycles of the earth for a long span of geological time. What made this one stand out was not only the steepness and speed of the temperature ascent but the height of it and the astonishingly greater amount of CO2 in the air.
We can argue about the causes. We can blame it on the earth itself, but even if we are in one of the earth's periodic warming cycles, it seems to me that the evidence that we are exacerbating it and making it happen far faster is hard to defy.
Humanity has it without our power to do something to slow this progression, and if we don't, we deserve the ugly fate that awaits us. The trouble is, it won't be "us" who suffer the brunt of it. It will be our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Let's try this analogy. If I discovered that somehow a brush fire had started on a hill behind my house, which would be the better course of action? A. Figure out how to slow it's progress, or B. Throw some more brush on it and say that I didn't start it anyway so there's no point in trying to slow it down.
Without our willingness to conserve, use less energy, develop alternative energy forms that contribute less to the warming trends, and stem the rising population of the earth; without our willingness to be good stewards of the resources we depend upon, we risk losing many of the wonders around us, natural and manmade. We risk dwindling water supplies, lower crop production, fiercer competition for scarcer resources, and ultimately, beyond the danger of climate changes, the danger of political instability and strife.
Why is population a part of this picture? Because each one of us consumes resources, and everything we consume, whether it is food, goods, heating, cooling, housing, transportation, and yes, using the internet, requires energy. The more of us, the more energy is needed, and right now, that energy is coming from sources that are, in the end, heating up our planet.
I am incredibly fortunate. I live in a beautiful place which provides me much joy in the natural environment. I am blessed with reasonably good health. Unlike the members of our military forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and people living in many war-ridden places around the globe, I do not daily face injury or death and am able to peacefully pursue my life. I have a close and loving family. The technology that I enjoy using -- much of which requires electricity like this computer, enriches my life.
I'd not only like to keep it that way, I'd like my grandchildren to be as fortunate. I hope we can get our government and businesses to take their heads out of the CO2 cloud and care about the future.
A Favorite Quote from Adler - On Books
“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you.” - Mortimer J. Adler
Photo of the Day - Common Buckeye Butterfly
I enjoy photographing small things that we often don't really see or pay attention like insects, small animals, stones, mushrooms, and the like. This butterfly or moth was in Branson, Missouri.
Unexpected benefit of blogging
When I started this blog yesterday, I sent out email "announcements" to some family members and friends, wondering whether anyone would even be interested in looking at it, in this busy world. What I've enjoyed is the email coming back to me with interesting stories and reminiscences triggered by what they read on Ex Consulto. I hadn't expected that, and it's a wonderful benefit, at least in the beginning. I hope some of them will eventually post comments here on the blog.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Photo of the Day
Flowers are one of my favorite subjects to photograph, with their endless variety and color. This one was captured at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello near Charlottesville, Virginia at the end of May. The gardens there were ablaze with color.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the future of humanity
As this day of remembering the courage and insight of Martin Luther King, Jr. comes to a close, I hope those of us who were young during the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s vividly remember his courage and the changes he helped to foster.
When I was growing up in a genteel prairie, university town that pretended it had no race problems, Blacks had to sit in the balcony at the theater, go to a separate elementary school, couldn't find a barber to cut their hair in the university shopping area, and a white high school student who dared to date a Black classmate had a cross burned on her lawn. I know I never knew the depth of what they faced every single day of their lives.
I was fortunate that my parents raised us with the motto "Above All Nations Is Humanity," and meant it. University students from countries around the world roomed at our house, and the summer of 1960, a Black teacher from a big city who was studying at the university enriched our lives as he stayed with us.
I remember, long before the days of videos in the classroom, seeing a black-and-white movie titled "Let George Do It" about fulfilling our civic responsibilities and not leaving them to others. It made a big impression on me.
But nowhere did anyone impress upon us the necessity of great courage in doing what was right, the necessity of insight and tolerance, the necessity of being willing to die, as Martin Luther King, Jr. did. I thank him for the leadership he gave and the sacrifice he made.
When I was growing up in a genteel prairie, university town that pretended it had no race problems, Blacks had to sit in the balcony at the theater, go to a separate elementary school, couldn't find a barber to cut their hair in the university shopping area, and a white high school student who dared to date a Black classmate had a cross burned on her lawn. I know I never knew the depth of what they faced every single day of their lives.
I was fortunate that my parents raised us with the motto "Above All Nations Is Humanity," and meant it. University students from countries around the world roomed at our house, and the summer of 1960, a Black teacher from a big city who was studying at the university enriched our lives as he stayed with us.
I remember, long before the days of videos in the classroom, seeing a black-and-white movie titled "Let George Do It" about fulfilling our civic responsibilities and not leaving them to others. It made a big impression on me.
But nowhere did anyone impress upon us the necessity of great courage in doing what was right, the necessity of insight and tolerance, the necessity of being willing to die, as Martin Luther King, Jr. did. I thank him for the leadership he gave and the sacrifice he made.
Technolust - Apple's New iPhone
I've been an Apple, then Macintosh user since 1981 and although I've always been forced to work on first a DOS machine and then Windows boxes at work and when visiting family members outside my own household, I've been a confirmed Mac aficionado all those years. I'm still working on my trusty six year old Mac G4 and love my iBook. I am experiencing a hefty dose of technolust over the new Apple iPhone, but I won't be able to indulge if they restrict sales to Cingular. It is gorgeous. As soon as it's in the Apple Store in my area, I'll be heading that way to feast my eyes on it. Maybe someday . . .
Reading and Children - A Passionate Interest
When are they ready? Several conversations with parents reminded me how wonderfully peculiar our system of reading is. In Europe and the Americas, we accept it as given that when we look at the front of a book, the spine is on the left. When we open it, we read left to right. Weve learned to associate the illustrations on a page with the text, can handle a narrative sustained from page to page. We accept 26 letters in myriad combinations as abstract representations of things, ideas, actions.
There is nothing self-evident about this, yet once we have learned to read, it seems so. Our family lived in Japan for three years. I remember the sense of shock when we first arrived and I found out what it was like to be truly illiterate. There was not one Japanese book, newspaper, magazine, or even street sign I could read and no letters and words recognizable to me so that I could look them up in a dictionary, as I could when I lived in Germany.
When I studied Japanese I was intrigued to discover that Japanese books usually opened the opposite way from our English books, and usually read from right to left and from top to bottom, with no spaces between words. I say usually, because Japanese can be written in practically any direction.
In Japan, family names that we call last names are written first, and personal names come second. Instead of letters, a complex system of two syllabaries, each having 46 characters, and thousands of Chinese characters (Kanji) were used. The Kanji are not letters like those in our alphabet. Instead, they are pictographs that actually visually (though abstractly) represent the word. I was learning all over again what it means to read, and I found it fascinating.
I wish I could say that I learned Japanese! Unfortunately, I can only claim to have learned a little, but the process of learning taught me a lot about what it must feel like to learn to read in any language. Until you learn, accept, and use the system so well that it means reading to you, the whole idea and system must seem strange and difficult. Imagine that someone has suddenly invented a new alphabet and tomorrow everything you try to read has been transcribed into this new code. Same language, same words, same syntax, but with different marks on the paper representing them. You'd be lost.
Someone commented to me that she couldn't wait until her toddler was old enough to read to. The same day, another parent of a boy the same age said shed been reading to him since he was born. The mother of a five-year-old says she can't read to her son because he wont sit still and listen. There are several factors coming into play here. First, what are the parent's expectations for reading to a young child; second, what are the developmental capabilities of the child; and third, what books is the parent choosing?
To a very young child who has not been read to a lot, a book is simply an object. It might be interesting enough to look at, handle or manipulate, perhaps even taste or chew, but there would be no knowledge about reading it, turning pages, focusing on listening to or reading the narrative that accompanied the illustrations. A long narrative above his understanding will be tuned out. Reading childrens books that are chosen for the developmental age and attention span of the child provide entertainment, information, an interpersonal interaction with the reading adult, and invaluable training in following a narrative, exploring illustrations and seeing a variety of art styles, finding details, linking words and pictures, increasing vocabulary, and experiencing the joy of language.
In other words, it teaches beginning reading readiness skills; most important, it teaches what it means to read, and the joy of it. It's not unusual for very young children to memorize their favorite books. When my granddaughter was two years old, she memorized Eric Carle's The Very Quiet Cricket right down to the expression I used when reading it to her. When my son was two, he had memorized Dr. Seuss's The Lorax, and turned the page at the appropriate time while reciting it to himself.
When are they ready? Right now! You just need the books appropriate for their age, attention span and interests. Ask your children's librarian to help you find the best and introduce children to the world of ideas, stories, the joy of language. It's a gift to few children receive in these days of television and computer games.
There is nothing self-evident about this, yet once we have learned to read, it seems so. Our family lived in Japan for three years. I remember the sense of shock when we first arrived and I found out what it was like to be truly illiterate. There was not one Japanese book, newspaper, magazine, or even street sign I could read and no letters and words recognizable to me so that I could look them up in a dictionary, as I could when I lived in Germany.
When I studied Japanese I was intrigued to discover that Japanese books usually opened the opposite way from our English books, and usually read from right to left and from top to bottom, with no spaces between words. I say usually, because Japanese can be written in practically any direction.
In Japan, family names that we call last names are written first, and personal names come second. Instead of letters, a complex system of two syllabaries, each having 46 characters, and thousands of Chinese characters (Kanji) were used. The Kanji are not letters like those in our alphabet. Instead, they are pictographs that actually visually (though abstractly) represent the word. I was learning all over again what it means to read, and I found it fascinating.
I wish I could say that I learned Japanese! Unfortunately, I can only claim to have learned a little, but the process of learning taught me a lot about what it must feel like to learn to read in any language. Until you learn, accept, and use the system so well that it means reading to you, the whole idea and system must seem strange and difficult. Imagine that someone has suddenly invented a new alphabet and tomorrow everything you try to read has been transcribed into this new code. Same language, same words, same syntax, but with different marks on the paper representing them. You'd be lost.
Someone commented to me that she couldn't wait until her toddler was old enough to read to. The same day, another parent of a boy the same age said shed been reading to him since he was born. The mother of a five-year-old says she can't read to her son because he wont sit still and listen. There are several factors coming into play here. First, what are the parent's expectations for reading to a young child; second, what are the developmental capabilities of the child; and third, what books is the parent choosing?
To a very young child who has not been read to a lot, a book is simply an object. It might be interesting enough to look at, handle or manipulate, perhaps even taste or chew, but there would be no knowledge about reading it, turning pages, focusing on listening to or reading the narrative that accompanied the illustrations. A long narrative above his understanding will be tuned out. Reading childrens books that are chosen for the developmental age and attention span of the child provide entertainment, information, an interpersonal interaction with the reading adult, and invaluable training in following a narrative, exploring illustrations and seeing a variety of art styles, finding details, linking words and pictures, increasing vocabulary, and experiencing the joy of language.
In other words, it teaches beginning reading readiness skills; most important, it teaches what it means to read, and the joy of it. It's not unusual for very young children to memorize their favorite books. When my granddaughter was two years old, she memorized Eric Carle's The Very Quiet Cricket right down to the expression I used when reading it to her. When my son was two, he had memorized Dr. Seuss's The Lorax, and turned the page at the appropriate time while reciting it to himself.
When are they ready? Right now! You just need the books appropriate for their age, attention span and interests. Ask your children's librarian to help you find the best and introduce children to the world of ideas, stories, the joy of language. It's a gift to few children receive in these days of television and computer games.
Welcome to Ex Consulto
Welcome. Ex Consulto means "with consultation or deliberation," a platform for random insights, opinions, musings and questions about the breadth of life.
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