Long Division

"Yes, it is complicated. Yes, the format of the process changes a little from what you have been doing and the steps get involved. But they are routine steps, taken in the same order each time. Each step, taken, in itself, is simple. No secrets, no surprises, just do the steps."

"Please, do not set your pencil down and stare out the window between each step. It drives me crazy! Keep moving, complete one step, move on to the next step, with the pencil in your hand."

Is there irritation, impatience in my voice? I try to be patient, I really do. If it just didn't take him so long.

He does concept math. Since he was little he understood the twenty-three"ness" of a number. To him, twenty-three plus eighteen is calculated in terms of the quantities, the values of those numbers. We "normal" people think, three plus eight, put down the one, carry the one, add one, two and one to get forty-one. He would see the twenty-three and the eighteen and "see" what they would be together. Actually, I have no idea how he sees it, but he figures it out. His process is difficult to transfer to the steps of long division, keeping the columns lined up and taking the steps in order.

How many times do I do the same thing? All the intentions in the world will not get the job done. I can visualize an end result, but how to get between here and there? That becomes a muddle. All I can see is the mess and the confusion and the random"ness" of it all. I have to stop, take each piece or each step or each day one at a time, and do what needs to be done. That is all. And stop staring out the window. Keep the pencil in my hand.

Take the steps, one after another. Don't get sidetracked, distracted. Then the job will get done.

The Art of Copy (Part Two)

Yesterday, I wrote about the value of copying great works, in any field, in order to learn and practice to achieve a new skill. Today, here are more examples.

In the beginning of the Suzuki Violin Method, four essential points are given. The first is:

1. The child should listen to the reference recordings every day at home to develop musical sensitivity. Rapid progress depends on this listening.

The key to rapid progress is reproducing the sounds, tones and notes heard on the recording. The development of musical ability is in copying the recordings listened to daily. Also recommended are group lessons where the younger, newer students are mixed in with the older more advanced students. Again, opportunity is given to provide good examples for the younger students to copy. The same principles are applied in the Piano Method.

Years ago, when I was expecting our fourth baby, with three under age five, I inherited my aunt's drawing table and art supplies. Inspired by her pencil drawings, and wanting to follow in her steps, I took a drawing I loved from a favorite book, L'Abri, by Edith Schaeffer (drawing by Deirdre Ducker). 

I drew a grid over the drawing in the book, then very lightly drew a larger grid over my paper. I worked on it each day as the kids were napping: drawing, focusing on only what was isolated in each square. By closing off the visual of the drawing as a whole, and looking only at the details of each square, one by one, I was able to reproduce the drawing very closely. When finished, I erased the lightly drawn lines on my drawing, but left them in the book as is. 

At the time, because it was just a copy, I didn't frame it, and it sat in a pile of papers in the garage for years. When an artist friend and I were talking, I pulled it out, and she insisted on framing it, saying that any art is of great value, even if it is just a copy. Now, it hangs on our living room wall with other original art and prints.

In the Charlotte Mason Companion, by Karen Andreola, she delineates a technique of teaching called narration, or "retelling what has just been read", either aloud or written by the students. "Narration strengthens and challenges all the powers of the mind." As the child thinks about what was read or heard, s/he builds powers of concentration, memory, evaluation, interpretation, and comprehension. By synthesizing and articulating their thoughts about what they understood and telling back (spoken or written) what they heard or read, knowledge is assimilated and reproduced. Copied. While copying, the student "develops a style all his own," a concept which was also shared in the quote by Pablo Picasso, yesterday.

In my workout sessions, watching the DVD, I am copying the movements of athletes who are far beyond my abilities. I match their moves as accurately as I can, working and striving to develop my muscles and strength as they demonstrate. By setting my goals beyond what I am currently capable; by copying those with a level of fitness I am working towards, those goals become possible, achievable (eventually).

Why do we enjoy looking at magazine or catalog photos of rooms decorated with a certain style? We imagine copying them, duplicating the look in our own rooms. Also with clothing catalogs, we imagine ourselves looking like the models, which the designers, of course, know very well and choose their models accordingly.

Learning by copying, teaching by copying, are  both valid methods. Of course this does not imply infringing on copyright laws or claiming a copied work as original. As a learning tool, copying is worthwhile and productive, a step toward discovering your own voice and skills and abilities.

Can you think of other examples of learning by copying?

The Art of Copy

A fun movie about a boy and his baseball dreams

"The great Babe Ruth steps up to the plate. His bat rests quietly on his shoulder. He leans into the plate. His eyes meet the glare of the pitcher, calmly, confidently. He breathes in, breathes out, his eye on the approaching ball. The bat swings, connects the ball with a crack, another home run! The crowd roars!" The young man swings, hearing the roar of the crowd in his mind.

A young ice skater imagines skating like Michelle Kwan or Scott Hamilton.
An artist copies the works of the artists he admires, working and observing the details, the technique, the colors, the shapes, the shadows of the work.
An aspiring musician imitates the style and finger technique of his favorite musician, playing air guitar, taking in his movements, learning by  paying close attention and studying each move and note played. The Suzuki Method teaches by listening to the pieces being played, then reproducing them on the student's instrument. By copying.

Many foreign language programs use listening, repeating, hearing the sounds of the foreign words and imitating them. Again, copying.
Children watch those around them, attempt to follow their actions, singing out the familiar words, "Me too!"
At school, the students  watch and copy their teacher, repeating her words, following her example. A good teacher teaches by attitude, enthusiasm; by repetition the subject is caught, duplicated. Or, they copy the other students around them, for good or bad lessons.
Whatever field, you can find examples of learning by copying. Science, sports, art, math, music, language and writing all afford examples of copying in order to learn.
Two of my favorite examples in the writing field are Benjamin Franklin and Jack London.
In his Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin gives ten steps to "elegant writing." These are paraphrased:

1. Choose a piece of writing that inspires or challenges you; that you wish to imitate.
2. Make a list of short hints of the sentiments in each sentence.
3. Wait a few days.
4. Without looking back at the original, try to complete the papers again by expressing each sentiment at length and as fully as had been expressed before in any suitable words that should come to hand.
5. Compare your work with the original.
6. Discover any faults, and correct them. Look for word mastery and variety.
7. Turn prose into verse, turn verse into prose, then turn them back again.
8. Wait a few days again.
9. Jumble the list of hints into confusion, then reduce them into the best order, which teaches method in arrangement of thoughts
10. Discover the faults, and mend them, improving on the original if possible.

Eliot, C.W.(1980) The Harvard Classics. Grolier Enterprises Corp.

Jack London spent many, many hours at the San Francisco library, reading and painstakingly copying word by word the writings of great authors recommended by the librarian. Uneducated, independent and poor, he taught himself by copying.

I collect quotes related to this art of copying. It is a fascinating and simple method of learning and teaching. As September begins and schools get back in gear, this is a good time to evaluate how we learn. To take lessons from the greats, no matter what field you are studying.

 "You should constantly try to paint like someone else. But the thing is, you can't! You would like to. You try. But it turns out to be a botch...And it's at the very moment you make a botch of it that you're yourself."                                 --Pablo Picasso

"...keep your eye on the pros. Study their moves, pick up their tricks, imitate them if you like. As contradictory as it sounds, imitation is one of the quietest paths toward finding your own voice. Though he was talking about painting, the words of Pablo Picasso, the most original of artists, apply equally to writing..."                                --Harry Bauld

                                                                On Writing the College Application Essay 
I love that phrase, "...the quietest paths toward finding your own voice."

Is this a Biblical concept? Deuteronomy 17:18-20, directed toward future kings says:

"Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left; in order that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel."

Who are your teachers? Who would you like to copy?

Pilgrim's Progress

                    The Pilgrim's Progress,
From this World to that which is to Come,
            by John Bunyan.
This classic in Christian and English literature is familiar to you, I'm sure.  It became a standard reference for students, and many of the English classics, like Little Women, refer to it. For now, I am re-reading some of the old devotional classics, favorites I read years ago. This copy, retrieved from someone's discard pile on its way to the thrift store, is missing its publication date, but the inscription in the front is dated June 1st, 1909.

In the beautiful handwriting of their day:

"Presented to
Miss Ida
As First Prize
in Spelling Class 'A'
By [her teacher]
Chickasaw, O
June 1st, 1909"

Somewhere in Oklahoma, in 1909, a young woman studied hard at her spelling and won this book, which I now hold in my hands, as her reward. There is no town of Chickasaw listed for Oklahoma.  The Chickasaw Tribe was one of the five Indian nations given territory in what is now Oklahoma, which became a state in 1907. Perhaps Miss Ida was from one of the families who settled in the Oklahoma Territory in the late 1800's. Or, was she a young Indian, learning English in a tiny prairie schoolhouse?

I love the evidence that she read and turned each page, marking favorite lines as she progressed through the book.

The illustrations by J.D. Watson, engraved by The Brothers Dalziel, are dark and sometimes frightening, typical of art from that era. The drawings support the message that Pilgrim's journey was fraught [a good Old English word] with danger and adversaries, yet also with those ready to help him along his way.

This book has to be handled carefully.  The binding is loose, the spine is falling off, the pages are yellowed and brittle. Each morning, I balance it carefully on my lap, one edge supported on the desk so as not to put extra weight on the weak binding.  The pages must be turned slowly, gently - a reminder to enjoy and appreciate and savor the precious [more Old English] words inscribed by John Bunyan from his prison cell.

This paragraph is from the Memoir of John Bunyan, by George Offor, in the front of my book.

"In The Pilgrim's Progress, the world has acknowledged one train of beauties; picture after picture, most beautifully finished, exhibiting the road from destruction to the celestial city; our only difficulty in such a display being to decide as to which is the most interesting and striking piece of scenery. The learned have ransacked the literature of all ages and countries to find the storehouses from whence these ideas were drawn. But vain have been their researches. Human wisdom is humbled before an unlettered artizan who never felt his own brilliant allegorical powers. His soul had been baptized into Scriptural truths conceived in the imagery of the Bible. His whole mind was deeply tinted with the sublime scenery of Job, of Isaiah, of our Lord, and of all the inspired penmen. This alone was his ample storehouse. The researches of nearly two centuries have proved the truth of his perfect claim to originality."

As I slowly read through the book, a few pages each morning, I think of Ida and hope she found her way to the celestial city as she traveled through life, ending her journey in this world with the assurance of knowing the world which is to come.

Graduations and Life

Life is full of graduations, most of them not formal events, but personal achievements - stepping stones from one level or skill to the next.  One step at a time.
Each step may not seem like much, but it is progress, the forward motion, that counts.  Over time, we can look back along the path and realize how far we have come.
The speech quoted below is from our daughter's high school graduation speech last June (valedictorian, proud mom!).  I thought it would be fitting to include parts of it here, as a marker for her to think how far she has come in the last year, and as a reminder to all of us to think about our stepping stones and our dreams yet ahead.




     Many graduation speeches might begin with “We made it!” or “This is it!” But, in truth, this is just the beginning. As an artist, I like to look at this as a drawing. We’ve completed the outline, now it’s time to shade in the details of our lives. Our younger years have given us the footing we need to move ahead in life and be successful. High school graduation is not the end of the road, but merely a stepping stone in the long walk called life.

     We have our entire future to discover ourselves and build our lives. Whether we’re going to college, joining the military, or just joining the workforce we’re all stepping out on our own paths. Throughout high school and our younger years our lives have been pretty similar, growing, getting into school, moving up from grade level to grade level. But now it’s time for us to step off the path and forge our own way, leave our own foot prints, and decide where our path is going to take us.

...Now we can take the lessons we’ve learned, and show the world what we can do! It is time for us to start our own lives, learn our own lessons, make our own marks on the world, and discover who we are!

     I’d like to end this with an amazing quote I heard by Brad Paisley: “Visualize what you want out of life with all your might. Close your eyes and build it in your mind. If you want to be an architect, visualize the things you want to build. If you want to be a songwriter, visualize the effect your music will have on the audience. That’s what I do. If you don’t dream about what you want, it will never come true.” So let’s not only start dreaming, but make our dreams a reality! 

Good luck to everyone and God Bless You! 

Her blog is: littlebitzofart.blogspot.com
Her website: littlebitzofart.deviantart.com