Chapter 1 - Reading Lessons from Proust and the Squid

     Good evening everyone!  If the following reads as if I am in a jovial mood, it's because we just received rain for the first time in months.  Everything's cooled off and feels so new.  It's the perfect time for me to reflect and write about Maryanne Wolf's Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain.

     At the start of each chapter, Wolf begins with a quote to set the tone for the forthcoming information.  I see great value in this and will provide one of the quotes in this and each entry that follows.

I believe that reading in its original essence, [is] that fruitful miracle of a communication in the midst of solitude.
-Marcel Proust

     Chapter one starts like almost all texts do, establishing a rhetoric for what the reader will be engaging in over the following few hundred pages.  Wolf begins by addressing three areas of knowledge that she will touch upon.

• The early history of how humans learned to read.
• The developmental cycle of humans and how they've (we've) learned to read in more sophisticated ways.
• The story and science of what happens when the brain can't read.

As an early-childhood teacher, my interest was piqued in the benefits I could gain through the second two points.  But alas, those points would be addressed later in the book.

     As the chapter progressed, Wolf provided a number of excellent quotes that express what reading has become and it's value in our society.  Enter any coffee shop on any given day and you will find a number of people deeply engrossed in text from a wide range of media, from books to magazines, from the internet to (unfortunately) smartphones.  More than enjoying what they are reading, I believe that these folks are engaged in creating and maintaining an identity for themselves.  Reading the news to become more informed about the world around them.  Reading fantasy novels to tap into the creative portion of their brains.  We read because we like to, and it shows that we are more evolved than other species.  As Joseph Eptstein is quoted as saying, "A biography of any literary person ought to deal at length with what he read and when, for in some sense, we are what we read."

     Within the first five pages, Wolf set the tone for my critique and understanding of her work.  History.  The history of how text has evolved from colored trinkets, (discussed in chapter 2) to the variable treasure trove of information that has been made available through the internet and other forms of mass media.  The history of how each individual person learns to read.  From the moment we are born our brains begin working to become a literary muscle, ever flexing, ever bulking up.  Wolf explains that our brains are an example of 'open architecture', that, "we come into the world programmed with the capacity to change what is given to us by nature, so that we can go beyond it".

    To quote Wolf herself, "Learning to read begins the first time an infant is held and read a story.  How often this happens, or fails to happen in the first years of childhood turns out to be the best predictors of later reading."  Lucky for me, I get to work with students within that range, or at least one year outside of it, so I am able to do my best to influence their later successes.

     The remainder of the chapter previews the rest of the book, and as I will be addressing those points in later blog entries, I will omit them at this time.

     Thanks for taking the time to read this.   Remember, comments and questions are always welcome.

     In the next entry, I'll go into greater detail about what the title of the book, Proust and the Squid, means and how it relates to the overall theme of the book.

Until next time...

The Art of Blogging About Blogging

For years, I have been a frequent, almost daily visitor to a variety of blogs on a number of varying topics.  The site that I visit most frequently is a hockey blog called, emptynetters.  From there I launch into the blogosphere and catch up on what is going on with my favorite videogame series, The Legend of Zelda, through zeldauniverse.  Lastly, as I reach for my first cup of morning coffee, I click on to dailyshotofcoffee to see various reviews, interesting tidbits and insights into new brewing methods for my morning pick-me-up. 

What draws me to this format can be expressed in a number of variations of one word, ease.  Blogging allows anyone who has an interest in something to easily put their thoughts out there and likeminded people can read and discuss the information.  In his discussion on Distributed Knowledge, Dave Marvett marveled at how easy it has become for us to share information as a culture, in particular through technology.  It seems that there is a blog about anything and everything.

However, this format of information sharing does come with its flaws.  Unfortunately, the ease which with anyone can publish their thoughts, there is also a chance that false, or misinformation can be construed as fact.  This is the biggest challenge that educators face when turning their students loose on the internet to gather information is distinguishing fact from fiction on blogs and wikis.  As Eric Raymond stated in his Linus’ Law, “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow” (with enough people looking at something the flaws can be identified and fixed).  I believe that the opposite can be considered as well.  That if enough people read something, it just may become truth.  As educators we must model for our students how to determine what is “accurate information” and what isn’t, as well as the ability to recognize when something might not “sound right”.

As I mentioned earlier, I have been a long time reader of blogs, but this is my first foray into this medium.  My own personal history of writing has mainly been limited to university assignments and newsletters for my first grade class.  Even rarer than my writing has become of late, is the fact that I have hardly ever composed anything to be read by fellow students.  It may take a few attempts, but I believe that with some practice, I can provide an in-depth look at my chosen book as it pertains to this course.

I have chosen Maryanne Wolf’s look into the human brain and how over time it has changed to become the reading, or non-reading, brain that it is today.  The book is entitled Proust and the Squid and reads a lot easier than I expected.  I went into this endeavor expecting a plethora of science terms and information that I would have to sift through to gain an understanding of the material.  However, much to my surprise I am grateful for the fact that this book is written in such a way that my non-scientific reading brain can grasp what Wolf is trying to convey.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and please leave comments regarding questions, clarifications or if something just doesn’t “sound right”.

Until next time…