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Mackfam
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| Posted: March 26 2012 at 5:41pm | IP Logged
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From our master thread - High school essay course using Chesterton. {Reminder: These essays come from G.K. Chesterton's book, Tremendous Trifles, available free for ereader/Kindle}
Essay for this week: The Wind and the Trees
All are welcome to join in the discussion!
1) READ THE ESSAY
2) Add to this thread any observation, enjoyable discussion, question, natural spin-off or rabbit trail that introduced itself by way of this essay.
3) Encourage high schoolers to model an essay based on Chesterton's essay.
IDEAS:
4) This essay is very visually descriptive of trees on a windy day. If you are able, choose a windy day and go sit down under a grove of tall-ish trees. The best time for this is just before a very large thunderstorm (note - do not risk life and limb to experience the grand and humbling experience of sitting under a grove of trees before a thunderstorm, though I can think of no other time that drives home this experience any better!) Make yourself as small as possible. Can you imagine, as Chesterton imagines, that you are actually at the bottom of the sea? Another example Chesterton uses is to liken the trees to a tribe of dragons each tied by the tail, thrashing about to free themselves.
5) Discuss the representation of the assignment of symbolism -->
trees = visible things, material things of the world :: cities, civilizations
wind = invisible things, spirit :: revolution
6) Are you studying any revolutions in history? French, American? Can you relate Chesterton's observations to your understanding of revolution?
Quote:
"No man has ever seen a revolution. Mobs pouring through the palaces, blood pouring down the gutters, the guillotine lifted higher than the throne, a prison in ruins, a people in arms - these things are not revolution, but the results of revolution.
. . .You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution." |
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Discuss how, in each of these film representations, the brutal work of the revolution (trees blowing violently) is preceded by "unrest and a new dogma in the reign of invisible things" (wind). Can you identify the wind in these revolutions? What were the ideas of the revolution? What caused the unrest?
7) Discuss the difference between dogma and heresy.
8) Chesterton says that the dogma is that the wind moves the trees --> ideas, spirit, unrest motivates action and change. And he calls the trees moving the wind a heresy. Discuss this. How can material circumstances create moral change? Is this possible? Is thought an accident of environment?
9)
Chesterton wrote:
| To treat the human mind as having an ultimate authority is necessary to any kind of thinking, even free thinking. And nothing will ever be reformed in this age or country unless we realize that the moral fact comes first. |
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This thought is very rich for discussion. It can be directly applied to current literature, marketed toward teens, where we so often find human strength and power glorified, with no acknowledgement to the "ultimate authority," or the source of eternal and supernatural hope, Divine Justice. We know our ultimate authority, and knowing and acknowledging Him is necessary to free thinking, says Chesterton. If this is so, discuss how should this motivate actions? If the "ultimate authority" is the wind, what then should the trees look like? How should actions be oriented if Divine Justice and Goodness is blowing through the trees of life?
10) Enjoy a discussion or debate on the thinking that (alcoholic) drinking leads to poverty, or that poverty leads to drinking? Are these both an example of tree causing wind? Define Socialist, English proletariat and degradation if you don't know what they mean. What do you think strong civic dignity is?
11) History mystery --> What was a Marxian politician in England?
All discussion and further sharing is encouraged! 
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: March 26 2012 at 8:13pm | IP Logged
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Looks like a good one. I will get ds to read that tomorrow.
He has actually been revising his first essay every couple of days since we read the first Chesterton essay- the essay my ds wrote is beautiful and wonderfully polished! I think he is ready to move on now, but I was so pleased at how he really took this on as his own (he actually printed it out to share with an older lady at church!).
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Kristie in Canada
Mom to 3 boys and one spunky princess!!
A Walk in the Woods
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Mackfam
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| Posted: March 26 2012 at 8:21pm | IP Logged
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Kristie 4 wrote:
He has actually been revising his first essay every couple of days since we read the first Chesterton essay- the essay my ds wrote is beautiful and wonderfully polished! I think he is ready to move on now, but I was so pleased at how he really took this on as his own (he actually printed it out to share with an older lady at church!).
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That's wonderful, Kristie!   How extraordinary that your son has taken such pride in his work, and been so diligent!! I'm so glad you shared!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: March 26 2012 at 9:42pm | IP Logged
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Thanks so much for the encouragement!
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Kristie in Canada
Mom to 3 boys and one spunky princess!!
A Walk in the Woods
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Shari in NY
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| Posted: March 29 2012 at 4:52pm | IP Logged
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We read this yesterday and it started a rousing discussion on revolutions and what they look like. It got deep fast when we recalled what the Syrian city of Hom looked like on the evening news.
Today they wrote their essays. Adam is writing on Dawkins and Darwin:The Dastardly Duo. He was still writing when he had to dash off to baseball practice. Ken and Joe were more light hearted with a report on the uses of wood (Ken) and an ode to trees (Joe).
Joe's is short enough to share here:
Trees
Trees are useful to us,
They can hold a tree house,
And they can easily take out a mouse.
They will never ride a bus.
You can climb them for free.
Wouldn't you want to be a tree?
For birds they are home.
For squirrels they are places to roam.
For me they are symbols of Freedom
For nothing is as free
As a tree.
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: CHESTERTON ESSAY - The Wind and the Trees
