Monday, January 28, 2008

Overdue Meme

I was tagged by Darwin! This may have been my first meme, but it bears repeating every 6 months or so, I think. So here goes:

Book Meme Rules

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

Aldous Huxley's Proper Studies is the nearest book. My husband checked it out of the library for me (handy that he works there) after it was mentioned in an article I was reading. Page 123 is in the middle of an essay titled "Education":

"A child may grow into a mental cripple or paralytic without suffering anything worse than boredom and fatigue. The fact is unfortunate. If children suffered agonies from the process of mental distortion at the hands of their pastors, if the stupid and mechanical teaching of German grammar or arithmetic actually made them scream with pain, we should by this time have learned something about right education. Finding themselves liable to prosecution by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, bad teachers would soon mend their ways."

[Okay, I cheated and copied 4 sentences! But really, that last one was hard to resist.]

So because the dissertation deals with literacy, which wasn't always talked about as such, "education" is a relevant topic for me, though often discussed more generally than is useful.

So I tag: Entropy at Sphere of Influence, Sarah at just another day of Catholic pondering, Jen at Et-tu? (oops, Darwin tagged her, too!), Anastasia, and Chris at Stuff as Dreams are Made On!

3 comments:

Entropy said...

My daughter's book is the nearest one: The Story of Daniel Boone by William O. Steele.

"See yonder, Rebecca," Daniel pointed. "That's our cabin."
Mrs. Boone stood quietly looking down at the six rough log cabins.

I'll do one more because that was the nearest book but not the nearest one that is mine: I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris (funny, very funny, but a little too crude even for me at times. Good ideas for throwing parties though!):

You can pick one up at the post office for peanuts and it's good because all your belongings will go to someone specific instead of going to a holding area for a few years. If you are grieving, have someone stay at your house while you are at the funeral parlor because crooks will comb the obituaries to see who has died and break into your home to steal things. The last thing I want to do is add any more stress to someone who is grieving, but you should know you are a ripe target.

Holy smokes! That was long. Thanks for the tag!

chrisa511 said...

I love this meme! I'll definitely post it later on today :)

Sarah Reinhard said...

Oh boy! I've been tagged a couple of times for this...I'll get to it, I promise. Hopefully while you're still around to read it... :)

Going to miss you during Lent...