According to Scholastic, reading aloud to babies is an enriching experience where babies can associate books with warm, close time with a parent. They can listen to language and then respond to it. They can focus on pictures and then link the words to pictures. My baby loves to grasp her books and explore how delicious they taste and feel through her mouth.
1. Where is Baby’s Belly Button- A lift the flap book by Karen Katz. This book teaches children where various parts of there body are located, through lifting flaps.
2. Tickle Tickle by Helen Oxenbury Mira actually enjoyed looking at this book, since the words were less in the way and the images were larger of babies bathing. The book is a large size board book with cute plump babies.
3. Blinky by Leslie Patricelli The author was searching for Blinky throughout the book with a very grumpy child.
4. I touch by Helen Oxenbury- this is a baby board book that deals with children touching balls, beards, cats and water. Nice illustrations.
5. Mommy Loves by Anne Gutman and Georg Hallensleben. This is another small board book with animal mommies loving their babies. The repetitve sentence makes it easier and rhythmic for children to listen and later comprehend.
6. My City Mi Ciudad by Rebecca Emberley is the first bilingual book that I have read for babies. The author has other books in this series dealing with my garden, my toys, my clothes etc. They contain one word followed by the translation in Spanish for instance Stores and below Las tiendas.
7. Do you want to be my friend by Eric Carle- This book deals with a mouse going to lots of animals and checking if they want to be his friend. Unfortunately other than another mouse no one else seems to want to be his friend. The book did not have many words, but lots of images that can help children imagine what the story could be.
8. Peek-A-Boo Who? A peek and flap book By Simms Taback. This is a medium size board book and my nephew would love it, it asks children to identify animals from cutout shapes.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
mohsin hamid on pakistan's independence
Ram Guha wrote on India's independence, but i was confused as to what he was getting at.
Here is Hamid.
And now Pakistan is once again turning its knife on itself. Insurgencies simmer in the regions bordering Afghanistan, and suicide bombers have begun to kill fellow Pakistanis with increasing frequency.
For me personally, the 60th anniversary of independence, while worthy of note, is not of the utmost importance. My hopes are already dashing ahead and attaching themselves to the elections that are scheduled for later this year.
On one side are the forces of exclusion, who wish Pakistan to stand only for their kind of Pakistani. These include the political descendants of the man who stabbed my great-grandfather, the people who seek to oppress those who are clean shaven or those who toil for meager wages or those who are from provinces other than their own. But arrayed against them is something wholly new.
Pakistan now has private television stations that refuse to let the government set the news agenda. It has a Supreme Court that has asserted its independence for the first time, restoring a chief justice suspended by the president. And it has an army under physical attack from within and in desperate need of compromise with civil society.
A 60th birthday brings with it the obligation to shed some illusions. Pakistanis must realize that we have been our own worst enemies. My wish for our national anniversary is this: that we finally take the knife we have turned too often upon ourselves and place it firmly in its sheath.
Mohsin Hamid is the author, most recently, of the novel “The Reluctant Fundamentalist.”
Mira's summer reading
Mira’s summer reading
Scholastic provides a parents guide to reading with young children and mentions that for 0-1 year old children the format should be stiff cardboard books with soft vinyl covers that are easy for babies to handle. They should feature pictures, that are simple or large designs set against contrasting backgrounds. The content can deal with animals or familiar subjects about family life, faces, food and toys. The languages should focus on labeling sounds of common objects or animals such as cats or cars. Skills like pointing to pictures and babbling may represent the rising and falling sounds the caregiver makes when reading.
1. Counting Kisses a kiss and read book by Karen Katz- this book has great illustrations and teaches the counting of numbers. It also gently lulls the baby to sleep, by one last kiss on your sleepy, dreamy head.
2. On the Day You Were Born by Debra Frasier. This book is for slightly older children since it has longer sentences and more words. But it is a beautiful book and its enchanting words make me feel part of nature. Although the animals are specifically American and European. Here is a sampling…
On the eve of your birth
Word of your coming
Passed from animal to animal.
The reindeer told the artic terns,
Who told the humpback whales,
Who told the pacific salmon,
Who told the monarch butterflies,
Who told the green turtles,
Who told the European eel,
Who told the busy garden warblers
And the marvelous news migrated worldwide.Ok this part is really good too..so here it is
While you waited in darkness,
Tiny knees curled to chin,
The earth and her creatures
With the sun and the moon
All moved in their places,
Each ready to greet you
The very first moment
On the very first day you arrived.
Here is the last page..Stop already!
>>“Welcome to the spinning world,” the people sang,
As they washed your new, tiny hands.
“Welcome to the green earth,” the people sang,
As they wrapped your wet, slippery body.
And as they held you close
They whispered into your open, curving ear,
“We are so glad you’ve come!”
The book is hardbound, with colorful illustrations. Nature, earth, sun, stars are featured more prominently than human beings which is a nice change from most of the human centered books.
3. I love you grandpa by Vivian French and illustrated by Dana Kubick
This beautiful book is about Stanley and his grandpa. It deals with Stanley singing to grandpa when he is tired and then grandpa taking Stanley to the swings. It is about taking care of elders and having fun with them at the same time. Stanley and his grandpa are both cats’ dressed as humans. This is Stanley’s song to Grandpa
I love bees cause they go buzz buzz buzz
And I love little fishies when they go splashy sploshy splashy.
And I love worms when they wiggle wiggle wiggle.
But most of all I love my grandpa because he is mine
And I love him best of all.It reminded me of my grandfather and playing with him. He is a passive participant in this story, but a loving and caring grandfather, just like mine.
Scholastic provides a parents guide to reading with young children and mentions that for 0-1 year old children the format should be stiff cardboard books with soft vinyl covers that are easy for babies to handle. They should feature pictures, that are simple or large designs set against contrasting backgrounds. The content can deal with animals or familiar subjects about family life, faces, food and toys. The languages should focus on labeling sounds of common objects or animals such as cats or cars. Skills like pointing to pictures and babbling may represent the rising and falling sounds the caregiver makes when reading.
1. Counting Kisses a kiss and read book by Karen Katz- this book has great illustrations and teaches the counting of numbers. It also gently lulls the baby to sleep, by one last kiss on your sleepy, dreamy head.
2. On the Day You Were Born by Debra Frasier. This book is for slightly older children since it has longer sentences and more words. But it is a beautiful book and its enchanting words make me feel part of nature. Although the animals are specifically American and European. Here is a sampling…
On the eve of your birth
Word of your coming
Passed from animal to animal.
The reindeer told the artic terns,
Who told the humpback whales,
Who told the pacific salmon,
Who told the monarch butterflies,
Who told the green turtles,
Who told the European eel,
Who told the busy garden warblers
And the marvelous news migrated worldwide.Ok this part is really good too..so here it is
While you waited in darkness,
Tiny knees curled to chin,
The earth and her creatures
With the sun and the moon
All moved in their places,
Each ready to greet you
The very first moment
On the very first day you arrived.
Here is the last page..Stop already!
>>“Welcome to the spinning world,” the people sang,
As they washed your new, tiny hands.
“Welcome to the green earth,” the people sang,
As they wrapped your wet, slippery body.
And as they held you close
They whispered into your open, curving ear,
“We are so glad you’ve come!”
The book is hardbound, with colorful illustrations. Nature, earth, sun, stars are featured more prominently than human beings which is a nice change from most of the human centered books.
3. I love you grandpa by Vivian French and illustrated by Dana Kubick
This beautiful book is about Stanley and his grandpa. It deals with Stanley singing to grandpa when he is tired and then grandpa taking Stanley to the swings. It is about taking care of elders and having fun with them at the same time. Stanley and his grandpa are both cats’ dressed as humans. This is Stanley’s song to Grandpa
I love bees cause they go buzz buzz buzz
And I love little fishies when they go splashy sploshy splashy.
And I love worms when they wiggle wiggle wiggle.
But most of all I love my grandpa because he is mine
And I love him best of all.It reminded me of my grandfather and playing with him. He is a passive participant in this story, but a loving and caring grandfather, just like mine.
Nussbaum on Education- The Robot Corporation
Martha Nussbaum writes about Indian Education on India's 60 th year of Independence. Her argument is similar to the one that she makes in her book, the clash within.
The rest of the nation should take note, for a nation of docile engineers and managers will not long remain truly free. It is time for a national focus on pedagogy—on the teaching of critical thinking and imagining—for a national acknowledgment that the humanities and arts are crucial for democracy's future.
How can India afford the luxury of thinking about such refinements, one might ask, when teachers do not even show up to teach, or do much of their real teaching in the homes of wealthier students after school hours? One might argue that the basic things need to be fixed first, and then one can move on to pedagogy. I believe, however, that we should reject this argument. When something exciting is being imparted and received in the classroom, when the whole enterprise of education is alive and full of surprises, both teachers and students want to show up. We see this clearly in NGO education, where nobody is coerced on either side, and yet pupils and teachers participate with passion, because what is happening strikes everyone as really pertinent to their lives.
India has one of the world's most vital democracies, with its enormous diversity, its strong traditions of argument and critical exchange, its artistic distinction, its great rational and imaginative powers. But India's democracy has also committed some conspicuous failures of public reasoning, giving way to parochialism, sloppiness, inattentiveness, and worse. Education based mainly on profitability in the global market magnifies these deficiencies, producing a greedy obtuseness that threatens the very life of democracy itself. Tagore said in Japan in 1917 that a nation might commit "gradual suicide through shrinkage of the soul". India's soul is so large that it would be difficult indeed to kill it; but it is surely in danger of shrinking.
The rest of the nation should take note, for a nation of docile engineers and managers will not long remain truly free. It is time for a national focus on pedagogy—on the teaching of critical thinking and imagining—for a national acknowledgment that the humanities and arts are crucial for democracy's future.
How can India afford the luxury of thinking about such refinements, one might ask, when teachers do not even show up to teach, or do much of their real teaching in the homes of wealthier students after school hours? One might argue that the basic things need to be fixed first, and then one can move on to pedagogy. I believe, however, that we should reject this argument. When something exciting is being imparted and received in the classroom, when the whole enterprise of education is alive and full of surprises, both teachers and students want to show up. We see this clearly in NGO education, where nobody is coerced on either side, and yet pupils and teachers participate with passion, because what is happening strikes everyone as really pertinent to their lives.
India has one of the world's most vital democracies, with its enormous diversity, its strong traditions of argument and critical exchange, its artistic distinction, its great rational and imaginative powers. But India's democracy has also committed some conspicuous failures of public reasoning, giving way to parochialism, sloppiness, inattentiveness, and worse. Education based mainly on profitability in the global market magnifies these deficiencies, producing a greedy obtuseness that threatens the very life of democracy itself. Tagore said in Japan in 1917 that a nation might commit "gradual suicide through shrinkage of the soul". India's soul is so large that it would be difficult indeed to kill it; but it is surely in danger of shrinking.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Pakistan
Ahmed Rashid writes in the Washington Post about Musharraf's state of Emergency.
President Pervez Musharraf was on the verge of imposing a state of emergency in Pakistan last week before being stopped by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and civilian advisers. It is clear to all in this extremely tense country that power is rapidly flowing away from Musharraf, even as he desperately tries to find a way out of an impossible political impasse.
Declaring a state of emergency would have suspended fundamental rights, placed restrictions on the Supreme Court and delayed this year's elections. It is unlikely that an already angry and mobilized public would have accepted new restrictions, even those imposed by the army, which Musharraf heads. Massive street protests and further mayhem might have ensued.
After eight years as president, Musharraf is battling for survival, refusing to yield power to civilians yet unable to exert the authority he needs to keep the peace at home and still be a useful ally to the West in rooting out Islamic extremists along the border with Afghanistan.
In recent weeks, Musharraf has considered imposing martial law, has tried to cut a power-sharing deal with exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and has enlisted support from President Bush to dampen the crisis that the country has been in since spring, but nothing has worked.
Bhutto is backing away from any deal, and her aides describe Musharraf as a drowning man.
Since 2001 the Bush administration has refused to understand that political stability in Pakistan requires a modicum of democracy, a political consensus among the country's various liberal forces and a working relationship among the four provinces before any battle against extremism can succeed.
Washington presumed that because Musharraf wielded the army's power there was no need to push for democracy or bother with civilian politicians. As a result, the Bush administration has lost the hearts and minds of the Pakistani people. (They have become further alienated while watching Pakistan become a whipping boy in debates between U.S. presidential candidates.)
The Bush administration looked away when the army rigged presidential and parliamentary elections in 2002 and ignored the exiling or sidelining of mainstream politicians and political parties by Musharraf.
For the past few months tens of thousands of the country's liberal and secular elite -- lawyers, female activists and political workers -- have protested Musharraf's wrongful suspension of the Supreme Court's chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, in March.
Yet even as our civil society filled the streets, the U.S. State Department and the White House maintained a studied silence -- betraying not only the Pakistani people and democracy but also America's abiding interest in having a stable government in Islamabad that would be a meaningful partner in the war against extremism.
Chaudhry was recently reinstated through a stunning legal decision, a major blow to Musharraf. The Supreme Court is now a wild card, capable of issuing any number of decisions that would make it untenable for Musharraf to continue as president and army chief.
In the days leading up to Aug. 14, when Pakistanis will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the country's founding, Americans should recall that Pakistan's creation was the result of a long democratic struggle against British colonial rule.
In 1945 thousands of Muslim lawyers and members of civil society marched through the streets of British India, demanding a new country. Pakistan was not created by a tin-pot general or by mullahs. And Pakistan should never be compared to Muslim Middle Eastern dictatorships; its people have a long history of battling for democracy, despite a U.S.-backed military that has all too frequently seized power over the years.
Today, Pakistan faces immense problems. There is a full-blown tribal insurgency backed by al-Qaeda in the North-West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan in which more than 200 soldiers have been killed since mid-July, while suicide bombers have twice penetrated Islamabad.
The army, facing civil revolt and plagued by differences of opinion, cannot effectively go after extremists, while Pakistanis have yet to be convinced that this is their war against extremism and not one dictated by Washington.
The United States needs to help bring about a peaceful and fair political transition in Islamabad before it again insists that the army battle al-Qaeda. Musharraf needs to shed his uniform, hold elections and declare that he is not a candidate for the presidency. Washington then needs to help ensure that the new elected leadership works with the army to mobilize public support for the struggle against extremism.
Neither the army nor Bhutto can battle the extremists alone and save Pakistan from meltdown. Bhutto understands this, but the army still does not. Bush has to accept that his ally's political days are over -- that it is time to stop equating Musharraf with Pakistan.
President Pervez Musharraf was on the verge of imposing a state of emergency in Pakistan last week before being stopped by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and civilian advisers. It is clear to all in this extremely tense country that power is rapidly flowing away from Musharraf, even as he desperately tries to find a way out of an impossible political impasse.
Declaring a state of emergency would have suspended fundamental rights, placed restrictions on the Supreme Court and delayed this year's elections. It is unlikely that an already angry and mobilized public would have accepted new restrictions, even those imposed by the army, which Musharraf heads. Massive street protests and further mayhem might have ensued.
After eight years as president, Musharraf is battling for survival, refusing to yield power to civilians yet unable to exert the authority he needs to keep the peace at home and still be a useful ally to the West in rooting out Islamic extremists along the border with Afghanistan.
In recent weeks, Musharraf has considered imposing martial law, has tried to cut a power-sharing deal with exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and has enlisted support from President Bush to dampen the crisis that the country has been in since spring, but nothing has worked.
Bhutto is backing away from any deal, and her aides describe Musharraf as a drowning man.
Since 2001 the Bush administration has refused to understand that political stability in Pakistan requires a modicum of democracy, a political consensus among the country's various liberal forces and a working relationship among the four provinces before any battle against extremism can succeed.
Washington presumed that because Musharraf wielded the army's power there was no need to push for democracy or bother with civilian politicians. As a result, the Bush administration has lost the hearts and minds of the Pakistani people. (They have become further alienated while watching Pakistan become a whipping boy in debates between U.S. presidential candidates.)
The Bush administration looked away when the army rigged presidential and parliamentary elections in 2002 and ignored the exiling or sidelining of mainstream politicians and political parties by Musharraf.
For the past few months tens of thousands of the country's liberal and secular elite -- lawyers, female activists and political workers -- have protested Musharraf's wrongful suspension of the Supreme Court's chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, in March.
Yet even as our civil society filled the streets, the U.S. State Department and the White House maintained a studied silence -- betraying not only the Pakistani people and democracy but also America's abiding interest in having a stable government in Islamabad that would be a meaningful partner in the war against extremism.
Chaudhry was recently reinstated through a stunning legal decision, a major blow to Musharraf. The Supreme Court is now a wild card, capable of issuing any number of decisions that would make it untenable for Musharraf to continue as president and army chief.
In the days leading up to Aug. 14, when Pakistanis will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the country's founding, Americans should recall that Pakistan's creation was the result of a long democratic struggle against British colonial rule.
In 1945 thousands of Muslim lawyers and members of civil society marched through the streets of British India, demanding a new country. Pakistan was not created by a tin-pot general or by mullahs. And Pakistan should never be compared to Muslim Middle Eastern dictatorships; its people have a long history of battling for democracy, despite a U.S.-backed military that has all too frequently seized power over the years.
Today, Pakistan faces immense problems. There is a full-blown tribal insurgency backed by al-Qaeda in the North-West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan in which more than 200 soldiers have been killed since mid-July, while suicide bombers have twice penetrated Islamabad.
The army, facing civil revolt and plagued by differences of opinion, cannot effectively go after extremists, while Pakistanis have yet to be convinced that this is their war against extremism and not one dictated by Washington.
The United States needs to help bring about a peaceful and fair political transition in Islamabad before it again insists that the army battle al-Qaeda. Musharraf needs to shed his uniform, hold elections and declare that he is not a candidate for the presidency. Washington then needs to help ensure that the new elected leadership works with the army to mobilize public support for the struggle against extremism.
Neither the army nor Bhutto can battle the extremists alone and save Pakistan from meltdown. Bhutto understands this, but the army still does not. Bush has to accept that his ally's political days are over -- that it is time to stop equating Musharraf with Pakistan.
60 years of independence
Khushwant Singh reviews pre and post independence literature in the outlook.
The story of Indians writing fiction in English goes back a few decades before our independence. The pioneers were a trio comprising Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and R.K. Narayan. Their impact was limited. Mulk Raj Anand roused the consciousness of the British and upper-class Indians to the exploitation of poor Indians; he was a Marxist propagandist, and used his pen like a sledgehammer to drive his point home. Raja Rao, who began promisingly with some delightfully humorous short stories, turned back to exploiting the mystical and spiritual aspects of India. R.K. Narayan remained a simple storyteller. None of his novels or stories has the ingredients I consider integral to fiction: sex, violence or pithy turns of phrases. It was the patronage of The Hindu that turned him into an icon of South Indians. He remains to this day the most widely read Indian of his times.
Not surprisingly, none of the three pioneers really made any significant impact on the English literary world. That was left to G.V. Desani with All About H. Hatterr which created quite a stir in London's literary circles, and as a result, back home as well. It was a refreshing departure from the quaintly charming works of the pioneers. His role model was James Joyce's Ulysses. Like Joyce's classic, one needed an explanatory guide to read Hatterr.
It is surprising there was no major work in fiction to come out of the momentous events in the history of India's freedom movement. Nor about the partition of the country, particularly in blood-soaked Punjab. The best novel on Partition came from the comparatively peaceful division of Bengal: Amitav Ghosh's Shadow Lines that I regard as a masterpiece.
Once the ground was broken, dozens of Indian English writers began to surface: Manohar Malgonkar, Kamala Markandaya, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Anita Desai, Nayantara Sahgal, Sasthi Brata, Bharati Mukherjee. They made some impact on the English and American literary scene. There were also a few Parsi writers who carved a niche of their own. These writers—Farrukh Dhondy, Firdaus Kanga, Rohinton Mistry—confined themselves to what they knew best: their own Parsi community, poking fun at it, and in the process, infused much-needed humour into Indian English fiction.
The man who smashed the wall of resistance in the literary world abroad was Salman Rushdie. His Midnight's Children not only won the Booker but also opened the floodgates for other Indian writers. Soon after, two more superstars appeared in the western skies: Vikram Seth and Amitav Ghosh. After them came the deluge: Amit Chaudhuri, I. Allan Sealy, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Pankaj Mishra, Vikram Chandra, Shashi Tharoor. With Arundhati Roy again winning the Booker and Jhumpa Lahiri the Pulitzer, Indian English was no longer on the fringes, growing by leaps and bounds until it is now treated on par with translations of Latin American novelists like Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
The link at the bottom is a list of novels by authors of Indian origin (many of them have settled abroad) which I regard as significant and rate as the best in the last 60 years. Though more than half of them are now foreign nationals, their themes are Indian and the applause they get abroad resonates in India. They return to India periodically to be garlanded and to get fresh material, and now also earn handsome royalties in rupees.
The story of Indians writing fiction in English goes back a few decades before our independence. The pioneers were a trio comprising Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and R.K. Narayan. Their impact was limited. Mulk Raj Anand roused the consciousness of the British and upper-class Indians to the exploitation of poor Indians; he was a Marxist propagandist, and used his pen like a sledgehammer to drive his point home. Raja Rao, who began promisingly with some delightfully humorous short stories, turned back to exploiting the mystical and spiritual aspects of India. R.K. Narayan remained a simple storyteller. None of his novels or stories has the ingredients I consider integral to fiction: sex, violence or pithy turns of phrases. It was the patronage of The Hindu that turned him into an icon of South Indians. He remains to this day the most widely read Indian of his times.
Not surprisingly, none of the three pioneers really made any significant impact on the English literary world. That was left to G.V. Desani with All About H. Hatterr which created quite a stir in London's literary circles, and as a result, back home as well. It was a refreshing departure from the quaintly charming works of the pioneers. His role model was James Joyce's Ulysses. Like Joyce's classic, one needed an explanatory guide to read Hatterr.
It is surprising there was no major work in fiction to come out of the momentous events in the history of India's freedom movement. Nor about the partition of the country, particularly in blood-soaked Punjab. The best novel on Partition came from the comparatively peaceful division of Bengal: Amitav Ghosh's Shadow Lines that I regard as a masterpiece.
Once the ground was broken, dozens of Indian English writers began to surface: Manohar Malgonkar, Kamala Markandaya, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Anita Desai, Nayantara Sahgal, Sasthi Brata, Bharati Mukherjee. They made some impact on the English and American literary scene. There were also a few Parsi writers who carved a niche of their own. These writers—Farrukh Dhondy, Firdaus Kanga, Rohinton Mistry—confined themselves to what they knew best: their own Parsi community, poking fun at it, and in the process, infused much-needed humour into Indian English fiction.
The man who smashed the wall of resistance in the literary world abroad was Salman Rushdie. His Midnight's Children not only won the Booker but also opened the floodgates for other Indian writers. Soon after, two more superstars appeared in the western skies: Vikram Seth and Amitav Ghosh. After them came the deluge: Amit Chaudhuri, I. Allan Sealy, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Pankaj Mishra, Vikram Chandra, Shashi Tharoor. With Arundhati Roy again winning the Booker and Jhumpa Lahiri the Pulitzer, Indian English was no longer on the fringes, growing by leaps and bounds until it is now treated on par with translations of Latin American novelists like Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
The link at the bottom is a list of novels by authors of Indian origin (many of them have settled abroad) which I regard as significant and rate as the best in the last 60 years. Though more than half of them are now foreign nationals, their themes are Indian and the applause they get abroad resonates in India. They return to India periodically to be garlanded and to get fresh material, and now also earn handsome royalties in rupees.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Abraham Lincoln to his son's teacher
I cannot understand why picasso is not blogging my photos. It says it is, and then it does not..anyway here are some words of wisdom from Lincoln.
LETTER WRITTEN BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN TO HIS SON'S TEACHER
"He will have to learn, I know, that all men are not just, all men are not
true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero; that for
every selfish politician, there is a dedicated leader...
Teach him that for every enemy there is a friend. It will take time, I know;
but teach him, if you can, that a dollar earned is of far more value than
five found ... Steer him away from envy. If you can, teach him the secret of
quiet laughter. Let him learn early that the bullies are the easiest to lick
... Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books ... but also give him quiet
time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun, and
flowers on a green hill side. Teach him to learn to lose and also to enjoy
winning.
In school, teach him it is far more honorable to fail than to cheat . Teach
him to have faith in his own ideas, even if every one tells him they are
wrong . Teach him to be gentle with gentle people, and tough with the tough.
Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when every one is
getting on the bandwagon . Teach him to listen to all men ... but teach him
also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth and take only the good that
comes through."
"Teach him, if you can, how to laugh when he is sad . Teach him there is no
shame in tears. Teach him to scoff at cynics and to beware of too much
sweetness ... Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidders,
but never to put a price tag on his heart and soul. Teach him to close his
ears to a howling mob.... and to stand and fight if he thinks he's right."
Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him, because only the test of fire makes
fine steel. Let him have the courage to be impatient . let him have the
patience to be brave. Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself;
because then he will always have sublime faith in mankind."
LETTER WRITTEN BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN TO HIS SON'S TEACHER
"He will have to learn, I know, that all men are not just, all men are not
true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero; that for
every selfish politician, there is a dedicated leader...
Teach him that for every enemy there is a friend. It will take time, I know;
but teach him, if you can, that a dollar earned is of far more value than
five found ... Steer him away from envy. If you can, teach him the secret of
quiet laughter. Let him learn early that the bullies are the easiest to lick
... Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books ... but also give him quiet
time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun, and
flowers on a green hill side. Teach him to learn to lose and also to enjoy
winning.
In school, teach him it is far more honorable to fail than to cheat . Teach
him to have faith in his own ideas, even if every one tells him they are
wrong . Teach him to be gentle with gentle people, and tough with the tough.
Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when every one is
getting on the bandwagon . Teach him to listen to all men ... but teach him
also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth and take only the good that
comes through."
"Teach him, if you can, how to laugh when he is sad . Teach him there is no
shame in tears. Teach him to scoff at cynics and to beware of too much
sweetness ... Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidders,
but never to put a price tag on his heart and soul. Teach him to close his
ears to a howling mob.... and to stand and fight if he thinks he's right."
Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him, because only the test of fire makes
fine steel. Let him have the courage to be impatient . let him have the
patience to be brave. Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself;
because then he will always have sublime faith in mankind."
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The Double Life Of Bobby, Baby, Blossom, Biju And Shaji Lost causes, alcoholism, eve-teasing, world politics, parochialism. Is there no end ...
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I just finished reading this very depressing book. Kite Runner dealt with fathers and sons, this book deals with mothers and daughters. Here...
