Notes

             You did no work today. Spent a lot of free time checking over a multitude of Gutenberg Project free books to download through iBooks, Kendle, and Nook. You wanted the complete Harvard Classics on eBook but could not decipher how to download it. You want to download your books into one bookshelf but so far you have not figured out how to do that. Your new iPad arrived just before you left for Florida. You eagerly picked it up and have been ‘breaking it in’. You decided on the 3G model with 32 gigs of memory, thinking you would develop a classics collection for use at any time. You would also like to download the Great Books edited by Mortimer J. Adler who you once had the privilege of hearing speak at Princeton High School in Cincinnati. You checked online and found this quote by Adler that is appropriate here.

“Many years ago - from the Middle Ages to modern times - the Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree signified completion of the secondary level of education (following the elementary or primary level) and so readiness to enter into the third level of formal education - the university, for specialization in one's chosen field. With that background in mind, Dr. Mortimer J. Adler wrote:”

‘If I had any hope that in the foreseeable future, the educational system of this country could be so radically transformed that the basic liberal training would be adequately accomplished in the secondary [i.e., high] schools and that the Bachelor of Arts degree would then be awarded at the termination of such schooling, I would gladly recommend that the college be relieved of any further responsibility for training in the liberal arts... if we are going to have general human schooling in this country, it has to be accomplished in the first twelve years of compulsory schooling...it would be appropriate to award a bachelor of arts degree at the completion of such basic schooling. Doing so would return that degree to its original educational significance as certifying competence in the liberal arts, which are the arts or skills of learning in all fields of subject matter.’"

         I like the idea of a basic humane education in the liberal arts first because it helps to know where current thinking originated. The iPad is like a new toy. Carol uses hers and appears quite content with it. I bought mine with my own savings of two years from my allowance of one hundred dollars a month and a small private retirement account I get once a year from teaching overseas for two years back in seventy through seventy-two. It allows me to have my books printed via iUniverse and buy new e-machinery every two years or so. Non guilt monies spent. Nothing out of the family budget for my hobbies/interests. Kim, Paul and Owen arrive tomorrow morning, today we had Linda, Bill, Jean and Jen over for relaxation, shopping, and swimming in the Gulf and pool. It was a fun day.

         It is difficult to unlearn a sense of ‘guilt’ for not doing this work, but to feel guilty for not writing is a form (for me) of extreme arrogance and pride.

         Your honesty is appreciated here, orndorff. Though I would expect as much since it is the truth. Post. – Amorella.