Paul Revere’s Ride in Context

History, Informative, Just For Fun, Military

By Adam Andrews

 

When our kids were little, Missy and I used to read them Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem about Paul Revere. It’s a great poem—a classic by any definition. We particularly like how the poem’s imagery takes us back in time, and we imagine ourselves in the Boston hinterland on the 18th of April, 1775, as Paul Revere rides out to warn his countrymen of the British threat. Even the rhythm of the piece recalls a galloping horse:

LISTen my CHILDren and YOU shall HEAR
Of the MIDnight RIDE of PAUL reVERE.

In all the years that I read it to my children, I had never thought to ask them what Longfellow’s poem was about. It went without saying, I suppose. It’s about the American Revolution, of course. It’s about the famed Minutemen of Massachusetts and their heroic battle with the British at Old North Bridge in Concord.

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year . . .
In the books you have read
How the British regulars fired and fled
How the farmers gave them ball for ball
From behind each fence and farmyard wall . . .

But in larger sense, the poem is also about the American spirit. It’s about how Americans won’t stand for slavery and how they fight against any and all threats to their liberties. Longfellow urges his readers to adopt the Minutemen’s attitude toward oppression and tyranny:      (more…)

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“Narration”: A Big Homeschool How-To

Classroom Help

By Karen Andreola

 

“Mom, quick!” my little girl said, tugging at my skirt. “It’s Puff” (the name of our hamster). She continued: “Come. He’s in the kitchen. He’s eating Tina’s food. He likes it. It’s increb-i-bulls. Come.” She ran downstairs. I followed. What a sight. Puff sat nervously at the edge of the cat dish nibbling dry cat food. He began stuffing both cheeks. Tina the cat crouched at an unsafe distance, watching with intense interest but placidly as if to say, “Only too glad to be rid of the stuff.” My eldest child was on guard ready to make a move in case Tina wanted a juicier entrée for breakfast or something entertaining to paw. How Puff escaped his cage is a mystery, but we put him back with hopes he wouldn’t soon suffer indigestion.

Children express themselves with an ever-increasing vocabulary long before they begin their first language arts lessons. My 5-year-old’s simple speech with her “increb-i-bulls” was a peek into that “art of telling” that is in every child’s mind, waiting to be discovered.

When a child is very young, we take joy in watching his first toddling steps. We record his first words until there are too many and we are far too busy following him around to keep track. Once conventional school starts, what is a young child expected to do? Sit down and be quiet—for long, long stretches of time.      (more…)

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Living in Liberty

Parenting, Single Parents

By Diana Waring 

 

Freedom in relationships—the amazing impact freedom brings to relationships—that’s where we are going in this column, but we have to start with a brief history lesson from Russia. When we talk about a family “living in liberty,” questions inevitably arise concerning parental—or even church—authority. So, before the questions begin, consider a real-life example of what can happen when authority and freedom collide outside the bounds of love.

In the 1800s, an ancient political theory known as anarchy—“an absence of government and the absolute freedom of the individual”—became popular, especially in Russia. Believing that authority and freedom could not peacefully coexist, and given the brutal conditions of life under the tsar, many Russian anarchists chose to use violence against rulers in their attempt to gain political freedom during an authoritarian age. It is fascinating to note that the tutor of Tsar Alexander III viewed the Western form of political liberty (defined as “free from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views”) as dangerous!1 The end result of the rising tensions between individuals and groups who were seeking “freedom” and authoritarian rulers who were keeping “control” of the masses was the destabilization of Russia, a major factor in the overthrow of the tsar and the success of the October Revolution by communists in 1917.

Assuming that you do not reign as a tsar in your home, your children are probably not going to seek the absolute freedom of anarchy! On the other hand, if your children are “born free and running wild,” will they discover the safety and joy that come from a Biblical model of parental authority? The challenge we each face is to discover the middle ground: appropriate liberty for our children with an appropriate authority for us as their parents—and to develop both of these with 1 Corinthians 13-style love.      (more…)

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