on learning new things

January 14, 2009

“But, Mrs. Frankweiler, you should want to learn one new thing every day…”
“No,” I answered, “I don’t agree with that. I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside you. If you never take time out to let that happen, the you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It’s hollow.”

— From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by e. l. klonigsburg

I try to read everythink that my son reads for school. This year they are reading novels for what they now call “language arts” (and we used to call “English”). When I started reading From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, I had absolutely no recollection of the title and author; however I had always remembered a story about two kids who ran away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. I was delighted to re-disccover this much loved book from my childhood. You should definitely read it, even if you are no longer in fifth grade.

---