![]() ![]() Walk with me a while and let me see if I can share some ideas that will help orient you toward understanding and enjoyment of Song of Myself. I would like every reader to have access to this remarkable multi-faceted, landmark work. It is also an important document in the history of American culture.” For, as Robert Haas, critic and editor of Whitman’s work has written, “It was then and is now an astonishment, perhaps the most unprecedented poem in the English language. Though written using everyday vocabulary completely free of traditional poetic structures, this poem may at first seem odd or hard to decipher. However, not every reader has this experience when first attempting this strange and beautiful, yet down-to-earth, poem. I know of no other poem expressing such total love and acceptance for every kind of person, especially common American working people, embracing every kind of human experience, even every aspect of creation and the universe, from vegetation to animals to the cosmos. ![]() Each time I read this work again, I am inspired, joyful, puzzled yet enlarged, and uplifted. In Whitman’s sweet and stunning poem Song of Myself, first published in 1855, grass becomes the overarching symbol for the people of the new democratic America: common, plentiful, vigorous, and every one precious. “A child said ‘What is the grass?’fetching it to me with full hands / How could I answer the child?”* ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() The mother of two grown children, Pat Kenschaft has taught mathematics to hundreds of elementary school children. ![]() Patricia Clark Kenschaft is professor emerita of mathematics at Montclair State University, where she was a professor of mathematics for thirty-two years. It shows how parents can set positive switches in their kids that will help them enjoy mathematics both in school and out." - Henry Pollack, former President, Mathematical Association of America ![]() "I hope many parents will read this valuable book. Sobel, former President, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics "Should be required reading for all parents of elementary schoolchildren." - Max A. Her critically acclaimed guide is particularly valuable to homeschoolers, offering all parents the tools they need to help children achieve academic and real-world success. These lively techniques - including games, questions, conversations, and specific math activities - are suitable for children from preschool to age 10.Īuthor Patricia Clark Kenschaft maintains that rote learning and standardized testing weaken children's natural love of learning, and she shows how parents can effectively supplement students' math education. Math Power offers easy-to-follow and concrete strategies for teaching math concepts. Any child can overcome the disadvantages of mediocre math teaching in school and parental math anxiety at home. ![]() ![]() ![]() He had made some friends that he lived with, and they lived by being tougher than other people out there. When Lauren asked him about what it was like outside, he gave her a glimpse into his life. This time, he stayed outside, bringing back money and gifts for his mom and one of his brothers. Both Cory and Keith held this against him, and Keith left once more. After his second time doing that, his father whipped him severely. Keith’s response was to sneak out of the compound, taking his mother’s key and the family gun with him. Since the age of 12, Keith was anxious to learn, but his father would not make an exception for him. Lauren is the oldest with three younger brothers, the youngest of which is Keith.įrom the age of fifteen, most members of the community were taught how to shoot. Olamina Is a preacher and his wife Cory is a schoolteacher. The father works at the University for money, and they have a house and garden. The Olamina family is relatively well off. Although her mother is dead, the smart drugs that her mother used when she was pregnant with Lauren have had a lasting effect – Lauren is a sharer and can feel the pain of others. When we meet Lauren Olamina, she is fifteen. Those who can afford to live in walled compounds design their security using shifts of armed guards and locked gates to enter the area. The police are as likely to be thugs as to help you, and you have to pay them for help. There are few jobs, no social welfare system. The year is 2024 and the world is in chaos. ![]() Parable of the Sower was first published in 1993 by Octavia Butler. ![]() |