“The Negro Race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education, then, among Negroes must first of all deal with the Talented Tenth.”
“The Talented Tenth” (1903)
Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
“Fire * Earth * Air * Water
The ancient division of the world of matter into four categories underwrote a whole interlinked system of equivalences that helped define human character, tend imbalances, mend illness and peer into the future. For the four elements were also assessed on a scale of hot and cold, wet and dry and given particular associations.
Thus, Fire was both hot and dry and linked with one of the four humours (the choleric) and the astrological signs of Aries, Leo and Sagittarius. Earth was dry and cold, and allied to black ‘melas’ bile (melancholic) and the three earth signs of Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn. Air was both hot and wet, and connected with blood and a sanguinous character and the three air signs of Gemini, Libra and Aquarius. Water was wet and cold, allied with a phlegmatic character and the water signs of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces.
The elements can also be allied to the four suits of cards, either our modern symbols or the fourteenth-century forms that are used in the tarot pack: Cups (water), Swords (air), Batons (fire) and Coins (earth).”
Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.
Posted in Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged numeracy, science literacy
“Visigothic Art: The Visigoths were the most Romanized of the Germanic invaders, and thus their cultural legacy (mostly south of the Pyrenees) includes the continuation of late Roman-Christian architectural styles (5th century-711), with one notable addition: the horseshoe-shaped arch, adopted by the Arabs after the invasions of 711. The Visigoths excelled in metalwork and jewelry using gold, crystal, and precious stones.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“Chinua Achebe: (1930-2013) Nigerian novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer. One of Africa’s best-known writers, Achebe gained an international audience with his first novel, Thing Fall Apart, now regarded as a classic. In his early novels, the theme of struggle and the transformation of traditional Nigerian society is dealt with compassionately, ironically, and with a sense of the tragic. Achebe’s vision of the writer as teacher and conscience of society informs his No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), and some of his short stories in Girls at War (1972). A Man of the People (1966) is a biting satirical farce that provides an expose of corrupt African politicians. His latest novel, Anthills of the People (1987) retains the wit and satiric humor of the earlier works as he explores the complex issues and problems which beset contemporary Africa. This novel, which was a finalist for the Booker Prize in England, is one of Achebe’s most optimistic and stylistically engaging works. Achebe’s style is characterized by a clear narrative and the use of local imagery, proverbs, and folklore. Among his other books are Beware Soul Brother (1972), a volume of verse which won the Commonwealth Poetry prize, U.S. title Christmas in Biafra and Other Poems (1973); and children’s stories, The Sacrificial Egg and Other Stories (1962), Chike and the River (1966), How the Leopard Got His Claws (1972), The Flute (1977), and The Drum (1977). His three collections of essays, Morning Yet on Creation Day (1975), The Trouble with Nigeria (1983), and Hopes and Impediments (1989) continue to underscore his belief that ‘A writer who feels strong and abiding concern for his fellows cannot evade the role as social critic which is the contemporary expression of commitment to the community.’”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
“The sources of some emotional attitudes are easy to appreciate. Here’s Oprah Winfrey on reading: ‘Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered that there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi.’ One source—probably the primary source—of positive reading attitudes is positive reading experiences. This phenomenon is no more complicated than understanding why someone has a positive attitude toward eggplant. You taste it and like it. Oprah tasted the mental journeys reading affords, and loved them.
But we can elaborate a bit on this obvious relationship. Kids who like to read also tend to be strong readers, as measured by standard reading tests. Again, not terribly surprising—we usually like what we’re good at and vice versa. The situation yields a positive feedback loop….
If you’re a good reader, you’re more likely to enjoy a story because reading it doesn’t seem like work. That enjoyment means that you have a better attitude toward reading; that is, you believe that reading is a pleasurable, valuable thing to do. A better attitude means you read more often and more reading makes you better at reading—your decoding gets still more fluent, lexical representations become richer, and your background knowledge increases. We would also predict the inverse to be true: if reading is difficult you won’t enjoy it, you’ll have a negative attitude toward the activity, and you’ll avoid it whenever possible, meaning that you’ll fall still further behind your peers. This cycle has been called ‘The Matthew Effect’ from the biblical verse ‘For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath’ (Matthew 25-29). Or more briefly, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”
Excerpted from: Willingham, Daniel T. The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2017.
“Antagonist: In drama or fiction, the antagonist opposes the hero or protagonist (q.v.). In Othello, Iago is the antagonist to the Moor. In The Mayor of Casterbridge, Farfrae is antagonist to Henchard.”
Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.
“What Langston Hughes poem refers to a ‘raisin in the sun’? ‘Harlem’ (1951). Hughes asks: ‘What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?’”
Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged black history, poetry, readings/research, united states history
“And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.”
Plato Protagoras (380 B.C.)
Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.
“6 Patrician Families of Rome
Manlii (gens Manlia) * Fabii (gens Fabia) * Aemilii (gens Aemilia) * Claudii (gens Claudia) * Valerii Cornelli (gens Cornelia)
The six major Patrician families of Rome—the gentes maiores—claimed descent from the priesthoods held by their ancestors at the time of the city’s foundation by Romulus and the first seven kings, when the senate was just a gathering of priests checking that the royal decrees were consistent with the will of the gods. The Manlii remembered their origins from the Etruscan Tusculum. Fabians claimed descent from Hercules through Sabine highlanders and kept control of the ancient Lupercalia festival—though their detractors argued that their name derived either from ‘peasant,’ ‘bean,’ or ‘ditch [cleaner].’ The Aemilians traced their origin to Sabine highland chieftains invited to Rome by the second king, Numa Pompilius, and their bloodline to Aemylos son of Ascanius—though others argued that they were descended from Romulus and Remus’s sinful uncle, Amulius.
The Claudians were yet another Sabine family ‘distinguished by a spirit of haughty defiance, disdain for the laws and an iron hardness of heart,’ who were divided into either the very good or the very bad-and contributed the Claudian line of emperors (Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero) along with twenty-eight consuls, five dictators, and seven censors. The Valerians had their own throne on the Circus Maximus and tended to ally with the Fabians to form a power block second in influence to the Cornelli.
The Cornelli were the most powerful of all the families, and it was said that one in every three of all the consuls of the Republic owed them some allegiance in blood. Their subsidiary clans included such powerful factions as the Scipio, Sulla, Lentulus, Dolabellae, and Cinna families.”
Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.
Posted in English Language Arts, Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged readings/research
“Got the weary blues
And can’t be satisfied—
I ain’t happy no mo’
And I wish that I had died.”
“Weary Blues” 1. 27 (1926)
Langston Hughes
Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged black history, poetry, united states history
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