Mary Jo Tate It has been too hot and humid here in north Mississippi to stay outside even at 8:00 a.m. or 10:00 p.m. (Imagine a hot, wet blanket hitting you in the face every time you open the door.) But the past few days have been comparatively cool (70s instead of high 80s) in early mornings and late … Read more
Isn’t it ironic that homeschoolers have to “defend” our decision to homeschool? Some people feel so threatened and “judged” simply by the very existence of homeschoolers, as if by our choices we are questioning theirs. I don’t go around telling folks in my neighborhood or my church, “I don’t understand how you can possibly send your kids to public … Read more
One blogger commented that she had difficulty adding me to her friends list because she had typed “electric” rather than “eclectic.” (Glad you eventually found me, and thanks so much for adding me to your friends!) I know I violated one of the cardinal rules of website naming: make it easy to remember and to … Read more
On a popular homeschooling discussion list, someone recently posted a quote (found on a website) from C. S. Lewis’s book A Grief Observed, proclaimed with alarm that this was not Bible truth, suggested that Lewis was not a Christian, and advocated reading Lewis’s “quotes” to detect his “dangerous” mixture of lies with truth. Here is … Read more
On one of my favorite Yahoo groups for homeschoolers, a debate is raging over C. S. Lewis . . . again. Lewis is widely regarded as one of the most important Christian apologists of the 20th century, and rightly so, in my opinion. Yet there are some who loudly proclaim that he was not a … Read more
Celebrate Homeschool Freedom Day on the first day of public school wherever you live! I’ve written about my family’s tradition of Homeschool Freedom Day in my comments on several other folks’ blogs, so it seems like I ought to write about it on my own, don’t you think? We start our official “new school year” at a different time every … Read more
I hope you’ll indulge me as I write about something not directly related to particular books . . . but ultimately it has a lot to do with books, and who chooses them, and how we use them. I just finished filling out the “Certificate of Enrollment” for each of my three compulsory-attendance age sons. … Read more
I’ve been reflecting on the variety of standards and preferences among my readers and decided I had better issue a disclaimer about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writings. Some people may find Fitzgerald’s material distasteful and inappropriate for their families. His characters are generally not designed to serve as positive role models for our children. If that … Read more
The other day I was writing about one of Fitzgerald’s early stories, “The Offshore Pirate,” and I came across a wonderful line that I just had to share: Five o’clock rolled down from the sun and plumped soundlessly into the sea. Beautiful! Fitzgerald had originally ended the story with the explanation that it had all been a … Read more
I’m working hard on revising and expanding my 1998 book, F. Scott Fitzgerald A to Z, for Facts on File’s new series of Critical Companions. When I was accepted to graduate school in 1989 and assigned an editorial assistantship with Matthew J. Bruccoli, the world’s leading Fitzgerald scholar, my first reaction, I must confess, was … Read more