Happy Father's Day - Flashes from the Past: A Great Dad

"My father...was the best man I ever knew. He combined strength and courage with gentleness, tenderness, and great unselfishness. He would not tolerate in us children selfishness or cruelty, idleness, cowardice, or untruthfulness."

As a young man, he was small and weak from asthma, and schooled at home. His father set up a little area at home to build up his strength and told him, "You have brains, but you have a sickly body. In order to make your brains bring you what they ought, you must build up your body; it depends upon you." As a child, he read him books (like those about knights and chivalry) that lauded physical bravery and heroism.

This Flash from the Past's time did come. He became Teddy Roosevelt, one of the most physically active U.S. Presidents, Rough Rider and cowboy, wielder of the Big Stick, the builder of the Panama Canal, avid conservationist, and buster of big corporate trusts.

On Father's Day Weekend, we thank and laud all the wonderful fathers out there who inspire us and encourage us to greater things. Theodore Roosevelt Sr. was apparently always a big, strong, healthy fellow who had special care and concern for the deprived and weak. Though a very successful businessman, he taught every 7 days in a Mission school, and worked tirelessly for many good purposes, like founding the New York Children's Aide Society and New York Orthopedic Hospital.

Teddy Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

Wikipedia Roosevelts

Happy Mother's Day Flashes from the Past: His mother "...was the making of me...(because) she was always so true and sure of me..."

He recalled that his mother "...was the making of me... [because] she was always so true and so sure of me... And always made me feel I had someone to live for and must not disappoint."

He did not talk until he was almost 4 years of age, and his self-centered behavior, hyperactivity, and relentless questioning led his teacher to blurt out that he thought this man's brain's were addled. His mother was so angry, she pulled him out of school to tutor him at home. His father bribed him read some of the classics, offering him ten cents for each one he was able to complete. He would begin to voraciously read books and recite poetry, and then he discovered he enjoyed science and was clever at mechanical things.

Who was this? This was Thomas Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park, and one of the most prolific inventors in history, inventing the cylinder phonography, the lightblub, and motion pictures.

As Mother's Day draws near, we salute all the remarkable mothers out there like Nancy Edison who believe in their children and inspire them to succeed in their own ways. Happy Mother's Day to all of you! Tomorrow we'll be traveling to Texas, but we'll be back to our regularly blogging schedule next Monday (May 14th).

Edison's Biography
Inventions of Thomas Edison
Eide Neurolearning Blog: 2006 Mother's Day Flashes from the Past: "Years later, we realized her marks were a ruse..."
Eide Neurolearning Blog: 2005 Mother's Day Flashes from the Past: One Remarkable Mother
Eide Neurolearning Blog: Flashes from the Past: A Lover of Words...(Another Who Had a Great Mom)

Technorati tags: biography, children, famous Americans, inventors, hearing-impaired, Mother's Day, Thomas Edison, homeschooling

Movie: Like Something the Lord Made

Over the weekend, we Like Something the Lord Made, a movie about the life of Dr. Vivien Thomas, a man who overcame racism and poverty to help pioneer innovative techniques in heart surgery. It is an amazing story, one that includes a glimpse into America's segregated past, as well as the strength and resolve of Dr. Thomas and his family. The movie provides a realistic view of innovation in surgical research, as well as the personal courage and self-sacrifice such work takes on all involved.

In addition, there is a small role in the movie for Dr. Helen Taussig, a Cliffie (Hurrah! - Radcliffe, Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins) who had dyslexia and was also a champion tennis player, and had quite dramatic pioneering work herself in the field of pediatric cardiology. She lost her hearing by the time she had graduated from Hopkins and relied on lip reading and hearing aids, but "some of her innovations in pediatric cardiology have been attributed to her ability to distinguish the rhythms of normal and damged hearts by touch, rather than by sound."

For families: Despite the title, this is not a "Christian movie" and there is some mild profanity uttered by the chief of surgery (Blalock).

Vivien Thomas
Wikipedia: Something the Lord Made
Movie Review: Something the Lord Had Made
About Dr. Helen Taussig

Classics Alive

We're back from eastern Washington and will post on some of our latest adventures - but I am thoroughly enjoying Gilbert Highet's writings (Art of Teaching, Classical Tradition...)and his zest for bringing the lessons of past to life.

He rallied his students at Columbia with this quote, "These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves." He really lived out this principle. When called to serve in the British armed forces at the beginning of World War II, he served in British intelligence, poineering the preparation of psychological profiles of Nazi leaders such as Hitler, Goebbels, Goering, and Himmler, based on his psychoanalysis of Roman Emperors.

How easy it is for us novice teachers of classics to want to play it safe - and treat past works as lifeless paper - but if we and our students are to apply lessons of the past to the present, we can't be afraid to work with it, analyze, criticize, and synthesize.

Today at lunch, we listened to Rufus Fear's lecture on Caesar (Teaching Company - Famous Romans), and when we heard how Caesar used Crassus' money to strengthen his successful campaign as praetor, and the tensions growing between the thoughtful moral leader Cato and potential tyrants Caesar and Pompey, the analogies between our current political system seemed closer than ever. Often we assign students biographies of famous or favorite people, but it also might be instructive to study the corrupt and the fatally flawed. There are plenty of lessons to be learned here, too - and the same temptations exist today.

Gilbert Highet Quotes
Highet: Living Legacies

Classical Flash from the Past: "Slow in being persuaded of things and sometimes difficult..."

We stumbled on this story and couldn't resist this Flash from the Way-Way Past: "a very obedient and questioning child, although slow in being persuaded of things and sometimes difficult." When an important friend of the family was visiting, the children of the house were playfully asked what they thought about his current (and somewhat questionable) political cause. All of the other children nodded their support, but this young fellow refused to give his approval although the 'friend' dangled him outside a window by his feet and shook him for awhile. Who was this?

This was hero of the Roman Republic Cato the Younger (95 BC–46 BC), as an adult also known for his legendary stubbornness, tenacity, and high morals. According to Plutarch, Pompaedius (the fellow who hung him outside a window) also muttered at the time, "What a blessing for Italy that he is but a child! If he were a man, I believe we should not gain one voice among the people."

Another fascinating detail by Plutarch: "When he (Cato the Younger) began to learn, he proved dull, and slow to apprehend, but of what he once received, his memory was remarkably tenacious. And such in fact, we find generally to be the course of nature; men of fine genius are readily reminded of things, but those who receive with most pains and difficulty, remember best; every new thing they learn, being, as it were, burnt and branded in on their minds."

Plutarch on Cato the Younger
Cato the Younger Wikipedia