education | The Casual Blog

August 4, 2010

Benjamin Franklin, my hero

Benjamin Franklin is my favorite founding father. There are chapters in the lives of others that I admire — Washington’s bravery, Jefferson’s eloquence, Madison’s political vision — but even these giants had glaring flaws and failures. But Franklin’s life as a whole is extraordinary, with many varied chapters — printer, author, scientist, inventor, politician, revolutionary, diplomat. He was, truly, a Renaissance man.

I’ve been reading, or re-reading, his Autobiography. I have a memory of reading it as a sixth grader, but the book must have been a simplified and expurgated children’s version. Franklin’s writing is mostly plain and direct, not much concerned with literary effect. His writing hurries toward his main objective, which is to tell what he has learned about how to live. He believes unequivocally in the virtue of hard work, honesty, frugality, and temperance. He very much wants to communicate the value of these habits and attitudes. But he does not appear dour or gloomy. Rather, he seems mostly cheerful. He strikes me as lively and always curious, a person who enjoyed both people and ideas, who had fun.

How did he manage to be so accomplished and productive? I think a large part of it was due to the old-fashioned virtues he promotes, like diligence and honesty. The man worked very hard and mostly kept to the straight and narrow. But another quality, which he does not (at least so far as I’ve read) discuss, was also important: unselfish caring. Franklin cared about other people, both as individuals and as communities, and dedicated much of his life to helping them. He was generous with his gifts. That generous spirit made him a happy, productive person.

In the Autobiography, Franklin does not conceal his moments of weakness and mistakes. He’s human — but a really remarkable human. I’ve been realizing how much his example impressed me as a child and influenced my development. For a role model, one could do much worse.

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August 22, 2009

Free at last of college tuition, and now for some poetry

Last week we passed a sweet milestone: writing the last college tuition check for the last child. For more than two decades, the formidable challenge of paying for college has loomed ahead, always a vague worry and gradually a bigger and bigger worry. As college costs steadily increased, it looked like a potential financial nightmare. Education of the young is a basic parental duty, and in bourgeois America it is — expensive. How sweet it is to put down that burden.

I woke up around 1:00 a.m. on Thursday and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I got up to do some reading. Not long after, I heard someone at the door, and then heard the door open. I was glad it was Jocelyn, and not an unknown intruder, who caused a a serious burst of adrenalin. She’d been out with friends at a downtown bar, and decided to spend the night with us.

Joc was in a jolly mood, and we had a great talk. I was so happy to hear that she’d fallen in love with English poetry and gotten surprisingly knowledgeable about some of my own favorites, including Wordsworth and Keats. We went over La Belle Dame Sans Merci to try, yet again, to understand what it means. I recommended some Tennyson, and she promoted some Coleridge. We shook our heads over the tragic early death of Keats, and I told her about Wilred Owen’s tragic early death in World War I. We discussed Yeats as well, and especially Adam’s Curse.

We marveled that there is such beauty and sadness in the world. I was delighted at her knowledge, sense of humor, and sophistication. She’s ready to launch. The tuition was well spent.

July 19, 2009

Revisiting Lincoln

I finally made it to the end of A Lincoln, by Ronald White, and I’m about halfway through Lincoln by David Herbert Donald. It seems like a good time to think more about Lincoln. He’s near the heart of the American civil religion (along with Washington, the Constitution, and the flag). And like us with our times of many troubles (wars, financial crisis, global warming, extinction of many species, etc.), he faced enormous challenges. In 1860, the year of he was elected president, slavery looked like a problem that that had no imagineable tolerable solution. In 1865 it was (at least in legal terms) over.

It’s hard to spend time with a Lincoln biography without feeling awed and inspired. We used to teach our fifth graders a few bumper sticker-size Lincoln facts, which have been lodged in my head since I was a kid. The log cabin. The rail splitter. The love of reading and learning. The frontier lawyer. Honest Abe. Political opponent of slavery. Savior of the union. The kid’s version is simplified, of course, but the bumper stickers aren’t seriously misleading.

Yet many of his contemporaries thought him an uncouth backwoods fellow. Apparently he had a high, annoying voice, dressed poorly, and was considered more-than-usually ugly. His early career was a checkered effort to make ends meet in frontier towns, and he experienced job loss, unemployment, bankruptcy, and uncertain prospects. He was reasonably successful as a lawyer, but he didn’t make a lot of money. As a new president, he was in way over his head, and he made many costly mistakes. He had views on race and other subjects that seem today retrograde. He was not a saint.

Even so, he continues to inspire us. His willingness to confront long odds and to reach for the best and highest are still moving. He was a man of many virtues. There are two that I take as as exemplary — honesty and intellectual curiosity.

Lincoln made sure that the individuals he dealt with were fairly treated even when it was to his disadvantage. I believe his reputation for exceptional honesty was a critical factor to his success. He won authority because people believed he was honest, that he was not corrupt, and that he would do what he believed in good faith was the right thing.

Lincoln was also unusual in his passion for learning. As a boy growing up on homestead in the frontier, Linconln got almost no formal schooling. He attended school for less than 12 months over his lifetime. How did he get so smart? Simple: he read omniverously. (Apparently he did most of it out loud, which must have been annoying at times.) He believed it was possible to transform himself, to become better. His story reminds us of how much a single human can achieve.