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.
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
From Journey North:
World Citizens Needed to Solve International Mystery
Calling all emissaries of inquiry. Ten secret Mystery Classes have gone deep undercover around the globe. In fact, they’re so hidden that their location might never be located again–that is, unless YOU join together as citizens of world to find them. You’ll connect, collaborate and compete to solve this international mystery. (How secret are the locations? They’re so top secret that details of their whereabouts are not even known here at Journey North–except in the minds of one or two people, and they’re not talking!).
There’s no time to delay. The hunt begins Monday, and you’ll only have eleven weeks of sleuthing before you’ll be asked to solve THE mystery: “Where in the World Do You Think Our Ten Secret Mystery Classes are Located?”
Click here for more details.
The Electric Company on DVD. Could I be any more excited? Not for my kids—for me. And Scott. We’ve been waiting for this for ten years.
Watch the trailer on Windows Media Player or Quicktime.
Where’s my cup of tea? Time to settle in for some good reading:
This week’s Carnival of Education, hosted by The Education Wonks;
and the latest Carnival of Homeschooling, hosted by The Common Room. This one has been organized around a theme of Charlotte Mason quotes—beautifully done, Headmistress!
Cobranchi is covering this one, too.
The New York Times reported that an unnamed appropriations bill in the Senate has this nice little amendment that will basically force a turnover of all g-school curricula to federal control.
Here’s the Times article.
When Republican senators quietly tucked a major new student aid program into the 774-page budget bill last month, they not only approved a five-year, $3.75 billion initiative. They also set up what could be an important shift in American education: for the first time the federal government will rate the academic rigor of the nation’s 18,000 high schools.
The measure, backed by the Bush administration and expected to pass the House when it returns next month, would provide $750 to $1,300 grants to low-income college freshmen and sophomores who have completed “a rigorous secondary school program of study” and larger amounts to juniors and seniors majoring in math, science and other critical fields.
It leaves it to the secretary of education to define rigorous, giving her a new foothold in matters of high school curriculums.
Apparently, this draft of the bill does not include private-school students or home-educated kids. Which is an interesting oversight, but one for which I am grateful. But I think the idea of a federally “defined” public-school curriculum is a bad idea with dangerous possibilities, and I’ll be watching this one like a hawk.
No time right now to do more than post the link, but this is a subject I want to talk more about later. We need to pay close attention to this issue, folks. (And I don’t just mean homeschoolers.)
Does my new banner image take too long to load?
Kelly at Big A little a has a great write-up on a mother-son book exchange between author Francesca Simon
Bless their hearts, those hardworking folks behind the BoB Awards have persevered this week through enough technical difficulties to stump NASA. To all of you who wrote me to say that you had been unable to vote more than once, or (in some cases) unable to vote at all, please don’t be concerned—it seems this was a problem across the board, affecting all the finalists. I am genuinely stunned and honored by the number of Bonny Glen votes which did make the tally, and I want to thank all of my supporters from the bottom of my heart. Wow! This has been an exciting and extremely gratifying week! Many, many thanks to all of you.
Because of the polling glitches, the BoB folks decided to end the voting period as of 4 p.m. Eastern time yesterday. Now the judges will grade the finalist blogs for readability, presentation, and content, and these scores will be added to the points earned by popular vote. This means that it is still anyone’s race. Best wishes to all my fellow finalists. I have so enjoyed exploring some new blogs during the course of this contest, and it has been a pleasure to hear from the new readers who stopped by to check out Bonny Glen. Again, thank you all!