Here’s Your Coffee-Break Reading…

This week’s Carnival of Education, hosted by The Education Wonks. As always, much food for thought.

Left-Brainers, Beware

Scott’s pal Tom, a teacher and mighty fine writer, blew me away with this story about author Daniel Pink’s visit to his school. I thought I saw where it was headed, but boy was I wrong.

Coincidentally, I shared a booksigning table with Daniel Pink at a homeschooling convention a couple of summers ago. We exchanged books; he autographed a copy of Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself for me and I signed Little House in the Highlands for him. He was interested to hear that Scott and I were just the kind of people he describes in his book: freelancers working at home, connecting with our (short-term) employers (in our case, editors) via computer and phone. What, he wanted to know, was our biggest challenge in maintaining this free-agent lifestyle? I didn’t have to think hard about that one: health insurance, I answered. He nodded. Yup, that’s a biggie.

I enjoyed his book. Wish he’d brought that film Tom’s school watched to the convention, though. I’m dying to know what I would have seen….

The Carnival of Beauty Is Up

Picturesque Life is hosting; the theme is The Beauty of Contentment. This calls for a cup of tea.

The new Carnival of Education is up as well. Lots to read today!

Everybody Loves a Carnival

Check out the new Carnival list in the left sidebar! (Right below the Recent Comments.) I’ll be updating daily. This week’s Carnival of Homeschooling went up yesterday at Why Homeschool. And don’t miss the latest Carnival of Literature!

Submissions for the next Carnival of Education are due today, and you may submit a post to the next Carnival of Unschooling through Feb. 9th. Saturday is the deadline for submissions to the first Carnival of Children’s Literature. Some great posts have already come in—this is going to be fun!

Quite a Thrill

Winners have been announced for the BOB Awards, and I am amazed and delighted to discover that Bonny Glen was awarded second place in the Best Education/Homeschooling Blog category. I am particularly honored to have come in right behind The Education Wonks, which is truly an excellent blog, one of my regular daily reads. Congrats, EdWonk, and kudos also to the third-place winner, Ramblin Educat, another terrific blog. Many thanks to all of you who voted for me and to the BOB folks for the honor and their hard work.

I can’t resist mentioning that another of my favorite blogs, Mental Multivitamin, placed second in the Best Book/Literary Blog category, and fellow homeschoolers Quirky Nomads won Best Podcast. Kudos to you two, too!

Things that Caught My Eye This Week

This photo: Billi-Jean’s son being edumacated.

This excellent comeback: Karen Edmisten’s response to an ignorant quote in a CNN article.

This lovely look at picture study (and scroll down on Ann’s main page for some beautiful copywork images too).

This bizarre publishing incident.

This account of John Taylor Gatto’s talk on “Fourth Purpose Schooling” at the Mid-Winter Home Educator’s Conference in Michigan.

This yummy-sounding recipe.

This Week’s Carnivals

Carnival of Homeschooling, hosted by PalmTree Pundit

Carnival of Education, hosted by Diane Weir

What’s Your Favorite?

The 100 Best First Lines in Literature.

I wouldn’t have put their #1 selection first. #2, now, that’s a good opening line.

Funny, the #30 choice sounds to me like something off this list of bad metaphors that appeared on the Bravewriter blog the other day.

I especially admire #38.

Hey Oprah, Are You Listening?

While Oprah’s p.r. people are busy explaining that they didn’t mean to exclude homeschoolers from her National Essay Contest, Harper Lee quietly made sure that home-educated students would be included in hers.

An awards ceremony for an essay contest on the subject of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the occasion attracts no actor, politician or music figure. Instead, it draws someone to whom Alabamians collectively attach far more obsession: the author of the book itself, Harper Lee, who lives in the small town of Monroeville, Ala., one of the most reclusive writers in the history of American letters.

With more than 10,000,000 copies sold since it first appeared in 1960, “To Kill a Mockingbird” exists as one of the best-selling novels of all time. For decades, Ms. Lee has remained fiercely mindful of her privacy, politely but resolutely refusing to talk to the press and making only rare public appearances, in which she always declines to speak….But since the essay contest, sponsored by the Honors College at the University of Alabama, got going five years ago, Ms. Lee, who is 79, has attended the ceremony faithfully, meeting with the 50 or so winners from most of the state’s school districts and graciously posing for pictures with the parents and teachers who accompany them.

(snip)

Her one stipulation for the contest was that children who were home-schooled be eligible to compete.

Hat tip: brother Jay