We were able to spend a couple of hours in the Art Institute this past Sunday, before seeing Joshua Bell play "like a god." Our adventure began with "Contemporary Drawings from the Irving Stenn Jr. Collection," and I will leave it at ... [insert head scratch].
Our meander through European painting and sculpture proved more fruitful for this family of readers, thinkers, and autodidacts. While it was wonderful to revisit one of my favorite paintings in all the world (above), it was Penitent Saint Peter, 1628/32 (Jusepe de Ribera; Spanish, 1588–1652) that defined the visit for me. (Much as The Captive Slave arrested my attention some years ago.) Something about the light and the expression.... and the image's sense of timelessness.
It was only the reminder that we could be late for the concert if I lingered any longer that moved me away the painting.
Link/Think
I added only one article to my Diigo library this week and promptly posted it... elsewhere. It has since been much linked and discussed, but in case you missed it:
Newsweek: "Why Urban, Educated Parents Are Turning to DIY Education"
Many of these parents feel that city schools—or any schools—don’t provide the kind of education they want for their kids. Just as much, though, their choice to homeschool is a more extreme example of a larger modern parenting ethos: that children are individuals, each deserving a uniquely curated upbringing. That peer influence can be noxious. (Bullying is no longer seen as a harmless rite of passage.) That DIY—be it gardening, knitting, or raising chickens—is something educated urbanites should embrace. That we might create a sense of security in our kids by practicing “attachment parenting,” an increasingly popular approach that involves round-the-clock physical contact with children and immediate responses to all their cues.Yet another home education stereotype from which I will flee.
Saturday Review of Books
Semicolon hosts "The Saturday Review of Books." Consider participating this week.
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