Weekly Wrap-up: Philosophizing with So-crates

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Nearly twenty years ago (can I really be old enough to start a sentence with that?), I endured  completed my one and only college course in philosophy.  I loathed that class, mostly because the professor announced on the first day that the Bible contradicts itself, anyone who believes in its inerrancy is a fool, and he intended to prove both points by the end of the semester.

Almost every time I returned to my dorm room after one of his lectures, I gave my roommate a speech of my own...

This stuff is from the pit.  Why do I need to learn these people's misguided thoughts, anyway?

Well, flash forward twenty years, and here I am, a middle-aged homeschool mom, trying to get my logical, straight-shootin', black-and-white thinking son to read Plato's The Last Days of Socrates.

I tried to set the stage for reading with an attention-getting opener.  We watched a family-friendly excerpt from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure on YouTube.  We laughed 'til our sides hurt as Ted impresses So-crates with his philosophizing:

Dust, Wind, Dude!

I thought I had captured Orville's attention with the antics of the Excellent Adventure, and we were ready to party on delve into the most excellent arguments of So-crates which he delivered during his heinous trial and in the hours before his most non-triumphant death as recounted by his student, Plato.   However, after a few pages, Orville sighed and yawned and lamented....

This stuff is from the pit.  Why do I need to study some wrong person's thoughts anyway?

If only he had said dead dude's thoughts, then I could have fully justified my hysterical laughter.

So we plodded through the book, and I helped him grasp the high points.  Most triumphant!  And along the way, I learned three things (Whoa!):

1. The apple does not fall far from the tree.  (Insert air guitar here.)
2. I don't enjoy philosophy any more than I did twenty years ago, even if I have matured enough to see the value in the study and try to explain its worth to my son.  Bogus!
3. If Socrates or Plato had been a student in my classroom, he would have spent much of his days in the corner for insubordination or just plain getting on my nerves.  But he probably would have liked that because it would have given him more time to think and philosophize.  Most Heinous!

Can you tell this book exhausted me?

Orville too.

Well, moving on... Orville finished Singapore 6A and will start 6B next week, learned how to use a semicolon properly, finished another IEW essay, and started learning to play Psalm 1 on the piano!!!

Wilbur received an A on an IEW essay for the 1st time!!!!!!  This is a HUGE accomplishment for him.  He was smiling from ear to ear, and his confidence received a big boost.

He also drew the pictures below which I think, granted I am biased, are excellent! 

Wilbur's drawing of Moses at the Red Sea

One of the locusts that plagued Egypt

Most excellent, if I may say so!

I am not a proud momma, am I?

Both boys worked together on a project for an international festival we will attend next week.  We also read a few chapters of Revelation together and finished The Silver Chair.  We will begin our reading of The Last Battle next week to coincide with our study of Revelation. 

And science fair project brainstorming is underway!

Laissez les bons temps roulez!  (Let the good times roll.)

Did I mention I am directing the science fair committee this year? 

Hello? 

What was I thinking??

Although, I would gladly teach science everyday for the rest of my life if it meant I never had to read Socrates', Plato's or any other pagan philosophizer's work again!

Except maybe Bill and Ted... nah!

Party on, Dudes!
Dawn