Do You Argue With Your Authors?
Wednesday. I was teaching Lauren word problems because she lost 4 points in word problems which brought her down from getting a perfect score in last final. When working the problems she said she has hard time grasping and remembering important points mentioned in the word problem questions. So I said just do read questions like you are having a conversation with the author who wrote the question and underline the important points to remember. This immediately drifted my mind to memories of watching "The Supreme Court" DVD's of all the four episodes few months back.It comprised of all the important U.S. Supreme Court cases from early 19th century Malbury Vs Madison to the recent ones. In that they mentioned me how associate justice of Supreme Court Hugo Black (appointed by FDR) did read for 50 years almost a book a day. His reading style was underlining the points like we would do but also unlike many of us he argued with the authors he was reading and wrote his conversations on the margin of the book. The Interesting thing to notice is he was a US Senator from Alabama who was a member of Klu Klux Klan and used to fillibuster the civil rigts bills in congress but after he was appointed to the Supreme court he become the supporter of civil rights. My perception in this is that his change could possibly be attributed to the books he was reading which were making an impact on him as a Justice. Did it?
Debbie since 2005 says that I am very Impressionable so I should be careful.She warns especially whenever I read Nixon or LBJ and talk about them to her.:-) Then I stumbled upon the book named "How to Read a Book" which was first published in 1940's and become a blockbuster seller. I wouldn't go deep in to the book but I would say it changed my opinion of reading of any book after that. As our schools don't teach different methods to read books on individual subjects (Science, History, ...) differently we read everything the same way and it is a big loss. Also what Hugo black did on his own is also metioned in this book of getting the habit to argue with the author when you read and let him convince you in his points. I think this is a right way to learn.Rather than let him proselytize you blindly you are using your reasoning to defend the fortress of your beliefs and knowledge and check thoroughly and let in the qualified limited information.I personally feel it also enriches your retentivity of any information.So next time you pick a book to read warm up for a sensible margin writing arguments.
Debbie since 2005 says that I am very Impressionable so I should be careful.She warns especially whenever I read Nixon or LBJ and talk about them to her.:-) Then I stumbled upon the book named "How to Read a Book" which was first published in 1940's and become a blockbuster seller. I wouldn't go deep in to the book but I would say it changed my opinion of reading of any book after that. As our schools don't teach different methods to read books on individual subjects (Science, History, ...) differently we read everything the same way and it is a big loss. Also what Hugo black did on his own is also metioned in this book of getting the habit to argue with the author when you read and let him convince you in his points. I think this is a right way to learn.Rather than let him proselytize you blindly you are using your reasoning to defend the fortress of your beliefs and knowledge and check thoroughly and let in the qualified limited information.I personally feel it also enriches your retentivity of any information.So next time you pick a book to read warm up for a sensible margin writing arguments.