In my personal roster of influential and greatly honored British men and women, Professor Simon Schama's name is surrounded by a sort of halo: he's a scholar with the native eloquence, presence, and command of the subject to make it entrancing to ordinary people. I see him as leading the way in teaching teachers of history how to teach it, how to tell it, how to make it real.
For young people who can recite by heart all the kings of Gondor and the names, special skills, and attributes of a hagiography of comic book characters, the problem isn't a reluctance to learn, but a reluctance to listen to material that is badly written, badly presented, without life or art.
Why do some scholars and teachers feel that their responsibility as teachers ends with the mere presentation of lifeless facts? Why is it up to their pupils to make themselves interested in subject, when the person presenting it isn't sufficiently interested to do it well and with passion?
The best teachers I had in my life weren't necessarily the ones who taught courses I particularly wanted to take; they were the ones with the gift for making me feel that what they had to say was important and not just in the abstract, but to me personally. They had a story to tell and they made you feel it. The story might be the story of the structure of the universe or the atom; or it might involve the chemical process by which glucose is converted to energy; it might be the story of French or Latin grammar; or of modern American poetry; it didn't matter. A great teacher makes you see the whole picture, the recurring themes, the context.
Simon Schama is an astounding and an entrancing and a spellbinding narrator of the history of Britain. Even more important, he proves that the art of making your subject entertaining rather than merely instructive is the art of teaching. If you want to get young people to look up out of their comic books, their fantasy novels, or their football scores, you've got to make them see that reality is fully as absorbing as fiction, games, and other past-times. In A History of Britain, Simon Schama shows the way.
I
haven't written much; it's just been too crazy around here. First,
there was the problem of finishing up several projects, all due within
a week of each other. Then there was the (unusually for me) shopping
still not done. Then there was the long-awaited visit of my husband's
daughter Emma, now on a three-week visit from Emma. Then there were
the truly horrific difficulties of my other stepdaughter, Jessy (the
daughter of my late husband). The good parts (Emma, plus hearing
unexpectedly from some old friends) have been really good.
Fortunately, even the bad parts have had some redeeming elements.
E.g., though Jessy is having a rough time now, she is showing a lot of
strength and determination in the face of it. It might be the sort of
bad time that leads eventually to productive changes. I don't know;
I'm feeling very optimistic about it. 
"Who?" you are probably thinking. "I thought his name was----" 
Ray Winstone took the International Emmy for best actor for his role in 
It's not conventional clipart like the other clipart I've posted. I was tired of the conventional reds and greens. I am sick also of hunter's green and rose, or of forest green and burgundy. I wanted clipart that would express the season in a variety of colors. 
My stepdaughter arrived today from England---welcome, Emma!---and specifically from the town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight. Nick is about to graduate. The house is finally clean. 
Nick and I are of course delighted that one of Ramsay's shows won "Best Unscripted." Joyous news indeed, particularly since it's likely to mean that more people will watch his shows and that more of them will in consequence be forthcoming. Nice that for once, my taste in pop culture heroes is being validated by those who get to decide these things. 
I'm sure we'll gather more photographs on our travels with Emma, but to celebrate the season, here are some Florida winter scenes. The winter is our most beautiful season, so these are just arbitrary selections, but they do give a sense of just how beautiful the season is. 
More holiday clipart available in my gallery of abstract digital images. Some are traditional Christmas colors and themes; some are more subtle or versatile. All are appropriate to the season! Because I'm stuck at the moment with dial-up, I haven't been able to post all that I have (the connection being, as the saying goes, "as slow as Christmas" har har har), but I've posted quite a number of them (including designs adaptable to cards. 
I've not had much time recently to ponder religion, but the weekend sort of brought it to the forefront because I was frightened. First, my mother became ill with flu, and I seriously overreacted because in the last three months I've lost an uncle and an aunt; and on Thursday, 
