Little People Made in God's Image

Part of a powerpoint presentation on education of children

G. Mark Sumpter

Hooked on OneHundredTwelveOnics

Memory Helps for Essential Tutors

Mrs. Leigh Bortins of Classical Conversations stands in front of the camera and hammers the 112 Different Types of Sentence Classifications. The most poignant moment on the screen is when she used the illustration of a hitter standing at the plate and never veers away from the basic stance but does learn to use different sizes of bats or maybe swings the bat differently to move the ball around the field.

Check it out! Leigh standing left hip to the pitcher’s mound—just like Albert Puljois or Prince Fielder—and she motions with her left arm, bat-free, and she’s nailed the motion. Do you know why she nails the motion? She’s raised a bunch of snotty-nosed boys. Obviously, she’s watched her boys play ball. She motions with the left hand. Gentle moves, along with the shoulder-level sways, and she’s moving her hand and arm in one sweeping motion towards the pitcher.

Leigh hits homeruns in illustrations for children and parents, illustrations that show how students should vary their memory techniques, vary their order in memorizing the grammar of the 112 Classifications. She wants her listeners to vary things to bust out loose with solid mastery of it all. Great tips for tutors for those teaching Essentials of the English Language.


Great video, Leigh. I’m hooked on onehundredtwelveonics.


G. Mark Sumpter

Skool Tamarow. Chhhh I Don't Kneed Skool I Can Spel Phine!

Tis the beginning of the school year

“The Athenians…were enthusiastically fond of oratory, and ardently cultivated fluency of speech. It was by this art that Themistocles kept the fleet together for the great battle of Salamis. It was by this art that Pericles so long held control of Athens. The sophists, the philosophers, the leaders of the assembly, were all adepts in the art of convincing by eloquence and argument, and oratory progressed until, in the later days of Grecian freedom, Athens possessed a group of public speakers who have never been surpassed, if equaled, in the history of the world.”

I am so grateful for the 4 or 5 individuals in recent years that have urged me onward in taking up good books to continue the journey of learning. My wife last school year more than stretched me when she asked me to assume the duties of being a one-afternoon-each week tutor in English Grammar and Writing. I tutored four children as their parents sat in too.


I have some interest from high school students at present to launch a reading course on Ancient Greece and to learn New Testament Greek. We’ll see what develops. Hence, the quote above.


One like George Grant and his work at New College Franklin, Tennessee has inspired many the past 10-12 years to learn the stories of Western Civilization, and then to tell them to the next generation.

HT: J. Lockman, on the title for this entry


G. Mark Sumpter

Eugene Peterson On Learning and Schooling

A little interaction on a blog entry from Pastor John Barach

Eugene Peterson, pictured right, is quoted by John Barach here:

Eugene Peterson says that we all suffer from “an unfortunate education,” which “has come about through the displacement of learning by schooling”:

“Learning is a highly personal activity carried out in personal interchange: master and apprentice, teacher and student, parent and child. In such relationships, the mind is trained, the imagination disciplined, ideas explored, concepts tested, behavioral skills matured in a context in which everything matters, in a hierarchy in which persons form the matrix…. The classic methods of learning are all personal: dialogue, imitation, and disputation. The apprentice observes the master as the master learns; the master observes the apprentice as the apprentice learns. The learning develops through relationships expressed in gesture, intonation, posture, rhythm, emotions, affection, admiration. And all of this takes place in a sea of orality — voices and silences” (Working the Angles 93).

As Peterson points out, what he is describing here is the way children — even infants — learn from their parents. Interestingly, I noticed that my son picked up the music of “Thank you” before he could say the words: he was imitating our pitches, first a higher one (“Thank”) and then the lower (“you”).”

I saw this quote by Peterson and then read through the commentary on the part of Pastor Barach.

The Deuteronomy 6 passage could not be more clear on this topic that Peterson addresses. Moses gives his charge to parents to carry out the teaching and nurture of children as a way of life and living. Specifically, the point of being together walking along the road or sitting at a table or in the living room in the home, and the lying down and rising up shows the daily life give-and-take of instruction and training. The points of the Peterson quote about learning developing through relationships are spot on the mark.

What makes the Peterson quote particularly engaging—and the point that Pastor John conveys about his son learning how to say Thank You—turns on the expressions Peterson uses to describe the ingredients of learning: gesture, intonation, posture, rhythm, emotions, affection, and so on. These are the ingredients that are found in the dialog of worship liturgy.

Pastor Barach mentions that his son, as a very young child, was learning to say Thank You with a musical-like intonation. That makes for a strong connection between Sunday worship and the Monday-Saturday walk of life. Maybe we can call it liturgically-based learning.

G. Mark Sumpter

Princely Nurture of Children

From the Dutch Hall of Fame--the Berkhof, De Jong, et al Crowd

“We assume that our covenant children have been adopted into the family of the King of Kings--as such they must be given a princely, royal education.”

From Y. P. De Jong and his, God's Covenant with Man

A princely, royal education?

My guess, Y.P. DeJong, did not intend to accent princely and royal as specific points of methodology for our educational nurture of children. But the royal motif fits suitably.

Just as Israel had her centerpiece of worship regulating all of life, and just as that worship was founded on the regiment and nurture of liturgics---I am speaking of the practice of the royal-priestly life and duties of Aaron and his sons---so all of life today moves and has its being in the shadow of priestly nurture, training and modeling.

Tabernacle privilege and parenting are partners. In what way?

First, Aaron and the sons of the Levitical trade, with worship and life, were word and deed oriented. As to the word, Aaron was the assistant of Moses, to be his mouthpiece, with his royal word orientation; and as to deed, Aaron and his sons handled (or mishandled) the censor, oil and other tabernacle, priestly practices. In miniature, the royal-priestly model of tabernacle life and work of the Old Testament was all-of-life encompassing. Words and deeds sandwiched with worship make for a life lived to the glory of God. Worship and work, worship and family, worship and civil matters, and on and on. Father Aaron and his sons provided this method of nurture.

Second, all of the tribes of Jacob camped around the perimeter of the tabernacle, and Numbers 2 tells us: they faced the worship of God. Things were centered on the Lord's presence and His morning-afternoon-evening services of worship. Therefore, every Israelite, with his and her eyes, ears and hands, took cues from Aaron and his sons. It reinforced Deuteronomy 6: nurture and education was an every day, all day devotion, and a matter for all of life. Whether rising up, lying down, walking along the way or busy at the household chores, children were enveloped for instruction and tutelage. Aaron showed the way.

De Jong may have meant simply loftiness and excellence by his comment about princely and royal education for covenant children, but they mark out a robust charter for our worship-based, promise-grounded and all-of-life nurture for our homes. Being children of the King of Kings necessitates training based on tabernacle life. Aaron homeschooled his sons, such royal and priestly training provides the platform for our high calling for today. It's more of the God's Kids, God's Way thing.

HT: the quote above from the Bergeron family, a Classical Conversations family.

G. Mark Sumpter

Careless, Untutored Queen

The Volume Turned Up on Shall and Will

About four weeks ago at Classical Conversations, I overheard a mild debate over the proper grammatical use of shall.

Someone pinpointed it: Wow, if we abide by traditional grammar on the use of shall, then maybe Queen has misled a whole generation!

Here are the words to their 1977 legend:

Aah
Buddy you're a boy make a big noise
Playin' in the street gonna be a big man some day
You got mud on yo' face You big disgrace
Kickin' your can all over the place Singin'

We will we will rock you
We will we will rock you

Question: Does Queen get it wrong with the chorus, We will, we will rock you?

Traditional grammar says,

“For formal English, there is a rule which states that in the Simple Future, the auxiliary shall should be used in the first person, and the auxiliary will should be used in the second person and third person. Like the auxiliary will, the auxiliary shall is a modal auxiliary. Thus, in formal English, the Simple Future of the verb to work may be conjugated as follows:

I shall work

you will work

he will work

she will work

it will work

we shall work

they will work”

The future tense in the first person, we, takes shall, and that indicates simple futurity. Queen, therefore, should have used shall. However, grammarians also say will is permitted when stating a promise, intent, or obligation.

Were they singing about something more than simple futurity? If they were promising to rock, intending to rock, then Queen was in the right.

About 45 minutes ago, someone on KLDR radio Grants Pass torqued the volume on the Queen tune, and it reminded me of the will/shall discussion.

The writer and humorist, James Thurber, wrote: “Men who use shall west of the Appalachians are the kind who twirl canes and eat ladyfingers.”

G. Mark Sumpter

Calling

Linking Verbs and My Pastoral Work

My Tuesdays start at Dark Thirty AM. That's right, it's the Martin Luther thing. German Reformer knee-mail. Remember when Luther said that he if has a milk run of a day he gets up extra early and prays for four hours? For me, it's the pray hard stuff getting ready for Classical Conversations tutoring. Four hours of Pepto Bismol, some pacing, a few cups of coffee, and then back to more pages of samples of Simple Sentences, Verb Linking with a Predicate Noun. Then a little more Pepto Bismol.

On Tuesday afternoons, I am privileged with four classically bodied students and their parents to express more of my calling as a pastor. Recently, [that's an -ly word sentence starter!] I've been born again as an Orthodox Presbyterian Minister. Let's get a brief word of some exegesis.

Back in August, after being asked to tutor four students in English Grammar and Writing, God met me. I was doing just fine on my own Damascus Road, thank you very much. He struck me down with Subject Nouns, Intransitive Verbs and Direct Objects.

"Sumpter, Sumpter, Pick up thy Subject and Predicate, and learn to write and speak My message well."

"Who are You, Word?"

"Go, I will show thee glorious gems of parts of speech."

I got up off the ground, was baptized with some training, and so, now, every Tuesday afternoon, I delight in Grammar and Writing for about two hours with tutoring. If only Mr. Heyworth and Mr. Harrison of Mears Junior High could see the fruit of their seed-sowing! Indeed, God is good.

I am learning to pastor God's World: stories of fancy and fun, and stories of history and Gospel. I am getting more and more sanctified with my earthy and earthly work with words. I remain confident that He who began a good word for me will carry it along, Quid et Quo and all, to the very end. My students are my helping verbs.

Tuesdays are the days I love to hate. It's the pastoral calling-like thing. "Sumpter, go, I am with you!"

It's the Lord's earth with all being His: words, complete sentences, pencils, diagramming, stories, Ancient History-Based Writing and Question Confirmation.

Jesus is God, and He is King. Compound Declarative, Subject-Verb Linking-Predicate Noun.

"Therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say."

Gulp.

G. Mark Sumpter