SCHOLA: Thinking, I think

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Thinking, I think

This quote from William James has been spinning around in my head since it was posted the other day on Mental Multivitamin:

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."

Uh oh. I hope that's not me, but it could be. How do you avoid falling into this trap?

The non-fiction books I choose to read mostly reaffirm what I already believe, or suspect to be true, that's partly why they interest me, and also because they may more eloquently express what I've been contemplating on my own. To stretch myself, it would seem simple enough to chose a book diametrically opposed to my beliefs. But why would I waste my time reading something so contrary to common sense?

Just kidding.

Sort of.

Is it as easy as keeping an open mind? Is it possible to have any strong convictions without being mired in prejudice?

Hmmmm.

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SCHOLA 101

schol' a: 1) An intermission of work, leisure for learning, learned conversation, debate, disputation, lecture, dissertation. 2) A meeting place for teachers and pupils, place for instruction, place of learning, school. 3) The disciples of a teacher, body of followers, school, sect. 4) An acronym for my tortuous blog title "Secular Classical Homeschoolers' Odyssean Learning Adventure." 5) How my Boston cousins pronounce "scholar." 6) Someone who studies at 10 o'clock for a dilla or a dolla.

These are the blatherings of an introverted, autodidactic, champion of The Enlightenment raising three daughters. At one time or another we have homeschooled, public-schooled, Catholic-schooled, cyber-schooled, unschooled, and even threatened boarding school. We have been inspired variously by The Well-Trained Mind, A Thomas Jefferson Education, and Climbing Parnassus, tempered by the writings and wisdom of Charlotte Mason, John Holt, Benjamin Franklin and Michel de Montaigne.

I try not to get wrapped up in labels, but we are secular and we are classical-ish.

We travel. A lot. Sometimes to the other side of the state and sometimes to the other side of the planet. Join us on our journey as we search for our home, navigate the waters of self-education, lounge with the lotus-eaters, and bash a Cyclops or two.