Fiza Pathan's Blog - Posts Tagged "classics"
CLASSICS-Why children should be encouraged to read them
In my school we were always given an option during the library period. Either we could read a fiction book (Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Princess Diaries, Harry Potter,etc) from the selection on the table next to the giant chart of South America or we could stand in a line & enter the inner part of the library where we could choose a classic to read (all abridged).
Being a person of a very unusual temperament, I used to go for the fiction collection. Later on after we were banned from the library because we were in the librarians words , "Evil under the sun", I started to ask my Younger Uncle for books & he presented me with classics. At first I made a wry face & bellowed like a bull but then I turned a page...that got me rolling alright. Then on I realized that, my mind was getting broader & I could ace my English papers with ease.....why ? because I was reading classics.
Classics are those books which have been written by the some of the best authors in the world. These stories or novels were excellent beyond words & so in time, they were hailed as classics, meaning something that will last for all time. There are a variety of great authors who have written stories that have not only been good but have been popular for many generations. The saying goes that we become what we read & if we read good literature...well....we rock !
Classics can be a century old, two centuries old or even a story come from the B.C. period. They are amazing & very informative. Some marvellous classic authors are :
1) Lewis Carroll
2) Charles Dickens
3) Jules Verne
4) H. G. Wells
5) Rudyard Kipling
6) Johanna Spyri
7) Homer & many - many more
Classics can be read over & over again & can improve your vocabulary in a weeks time of reading. Some great classics are :
1) Around The World In Eighty Days
2) Oliver Twist
3) David Copperfield
4) Time Machine
5) Treasure Island
6) Little Women
7) Heidi
8) The Invisible Man
9) Dracula
10) Anne Of Green Gables
11) What Katy Did ?
12) Journey To The Center Of The Earth
13) Kim
14) Black Beauty
15) Dr. Dolittle
16) The Wizard Of Oz
17) Moby Dick
18) The Secret Garden
19) Ivanhoe
20) The Black Arrow & many more
So, what are you waiting for, grab a classic & get on with your reading. If you want more options, google it or find it on Amazon.
Reading is fun & reading classics is extra fun.
Treasury Of Bizarre Christmas Stories
Being a person of a very unusual temperament, I used to go for the fiction collection. Later on after we were banned from the library because we were in the librarians words , "Evil under the sun", I started to ask my Younger Uncle for books & he presented me with classics. At first I made a wry face & bellowed like a bull but then I turned a page...that got me rolling alright. Then on I realized that, my mind was getting broader & I could ace my English papers with ease.....why ? because I was reading classics.
Classics are those books which have been written by the some of the best authors in the world. These stories or novels were excellent beyond words & so in time, they were hailed as classics, meaning something that will last for all time. There are a variety of great authors who have written stories that have not only been good but have been popular for many generations. The saying goes that we become what we read & if we read good literature...well....we rock !
Classics can be a century old, two centuries old or even a story come from the B.C. period. They are amazing & very informative. Some marvellous classic authors are :
1) Lewis Carroll
2) Charles Dickens
3) Jules Verne
4) H. G. Wells
5) Rudyard Kipling
6) Johanna Spyri
7) Homer & many - many more
Classics can be read over & over again & can improve your vocabulary in a weeks time of reading. Some great classics are :
1) Around The World In Eighty Days
2) Oliver Twist
3) David Copperfield
4) Time Machine
5) Treasure Island
6) Little Women
7) Heidi
8) The Invisible Man
9) Dracula
10) Anne Of Green Gables
11) What Katy Did ?
12) Journey To The Center Of The Earth
13) Kim
14) Black Beauty
15) Dr. Dolittle
16) The Wizard Of Oz
17) Moby Dick
18) The Secret Garden
19) Ivanhoe
20) The Black Arrow & many more
So, what are you waiting for, grab a classic & get on with your reading. If you want more options, google it or find it on Amazon.
Reading is fun & reading classics is extra fun.
Treasury Of Bizarre Christmas Stories
THE MODERN YOUNG THEOSOPHIST: The Right to Read
It has been a wonderful experience to be a student of Theosophy mostly because one can study the ancient as well as modern religions & discern for myself what is truth from falsehood … but what about young school & college going students of today?... do they know what they are reading or how reading can change their whole lives?... including the life of the society in which they reside in physically, mentally, spiritually & psychologically???
Reading good literature can define ones way of looking at life objectively rather than subjectively, & we do not need scholars in our present day society which our modern day education system seems to state… we need educated people in the society… not people with encyclopaedic knowledge who think that with the help of that knowledge, they can be a supreme master of intelligence. The study of ancient & modern texts in Theosophy proves, not that we are beyond correction … but that the universe is at times beyond our understanding & that some of the most basic questions remained unanswerable in society; when I asked my students to answer me the various facets of life that they find unanswerable, these were the following answers they gave me:
• The creation as well as the development of life in the mothers womb
• The never dying poetry of nature
• The laughter of a new born baby
• The love in the mute eyes of an animal for their ‘special’ human
• The silence of an ancient tree
• The depths of our oceans
• The story of the life of a star
• The way a new born foal stands upon his feet the moment he is born etc.
These answers from my students made me realize that I am a mere mortal, even I do not know the depth of the human mind & the real story of our past … let alone the narrative of our future. Being an expert in one field of study or reading does not make a master but, changing the course of ones deranged way of thinking can.
Reading is a must for today’s modern generation, & when I state ‘reading’ I mean the reading of good books which is essential for what is going to become of us in the future. Reading can humble our insensitivity when a beggar boy of five years is seen begging at our car window or when we see a BMC worker piling our filthy garbage upon a reeking truck of soiled vegetables. Students today have to follow a motto which is almost similar to Swami Dayanand Saraswati when he stated ‘Back To The Vedas’ only now for us … it will be ‘back to reading’. Reading can salvage whatever good is yet present in our being & make us more in tune with the overall functioning of our society. Even in the story of Islam, it was Angel Gabriel who commanded Prophet Muhammad to ‘read’ for the salvation of man … it was not a request but a command … The Prophet Muhammad read … our younger generation should also read!
With the aid of reading good books, one can gain something which all the money in the world cannot give … a love that only the pages of time long past can recreate a constant sense of peace within our souls.
I am glad that my students are reading good literature but … I am gladder that their knowledge is not going to their head & that they with the aid of classical works in literature & other social & natural sciences are becoming more empathetic to the happenings taking place around them. Here is a list of what my students are currently reading standard wise:
• Fifth-grade: Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• Sixth-grade: A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens , The Hound Of The Baskervilles by Conan Doyle
• Seventh-grade: The Village By The Sea by Anita Desai, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• Eight-grade: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Ninth-grade: Anne Of Green Gables by L.M.Montgomery
There is a lot more in the year that they have to read & I am going to ensure that their reading experiences should aid them towards a better future not only for themselves but for the entire world … if not the cosmos.
To be precise, a true student Theosophist is the one who reads & puts ones good reading into action. I want my students to bring about a change in the corruption of humanity, which they will only be able to fathom through constant tutoring, research & READING. They have a right to their future which will be my oblivion … yet; I will not be selfish to deny them their Earth like paradise. As Angel Gabriel himself through the mercy of Allah (God) stated:
“Muhammad, READ … in the name of thy Lord who created man from a sensitive drop of blood, who teaches man what he knows not, read!”
Our younger generation needs to go back to proper reading to know what they do not but not for the sake of self-glory, but for the sake of the glory of that one merciful sensitive drop of blood … read! This is the true mission of the 21st century, & the new story of mankind … which was once old but like a cycle, has returned to cloud our guilt & to be the harbinger like Saint John the Baptist for our new story … our new brave story.
Let not words create doubt but let knowledge & wisdom take its course. If you understand my riddle then follow the path it suggests, in the name of that sensitive drop of blood, READ!
CLASSICS: Why we should encourage children to read them
Reading good literature can define ones way of looking at life objectively rather than subjectively, & we do not need scholars in our present day society which our modern day education system seems to state… we need educated people in the society… not people with encyclopaedic knowledge who think that with the help of that knowledge, they can be a supreme master of intelligence. The study of ancient & modern texts in Theosophy proves, not that we are beyond correction … but that the universe is at times beyond our understanding & that some of the most basic questions remained unanswerable in society; when I asked my students to answer me the various facets of life that they find unanswerable, these were the following answers they gave me:
• The creation as well as the development of life in the mothers womb
• The never dying poetry of nature
• The laughter of a new born baby
• The love in the mute eyes of an animal for their ‘special’ human
• The silence of an ancient tree
• The depths of our oceans
• The story of the life of a star
• The way a new born foal stands upon his feet the moment he is born etc.
These answers from my students made me realize that I am a mere mortal, even I do not know the depth of the human mind & the real story of our past … let alone the narrative of our future. Being an expert in one field of study or reading does not make a master but, changing the course of ones deranged way of thinking can.
Reading is a must for today’s modern generation, & when I state ‘reading’ I mean the reading of good books which is essential for what is going to become of us in the future. Reading can humble our insensitivity when a beggar boy of five years is seen begging at our car window or when we see a BMC worker piling our filthy garbage upon a reeking truck of soiled vegetables. Students today have to follow a motto which is almost similar to Swami Dayanand Saraswati when he stated ‘Back To The Vedas’ only now for us … it will be ‘back to reading’. Reading can salvage whatever good is yet present in our being & make us more in tune with the overall functioning of our society. Even in the story of Islam, it was Angel Gabriel who commanded Prophet Muhammad to ‘read’ for the salvation of man … it was not a request but a command … The Prophet Muhammad read … our younger generation should also read!
With the aid of reading good books, one can gain something which all the money in the world cannot give … a love that only the pages of time long past can recreate a constant sense of peace within our souls.
I am glad that my students are reading good literature but … I am gladder that their knowledge is not going to their head & that they with the aid of classical works in literature & other social & natural sciences are becoming more empathetic to the happenings taking place around them. Here is a list of what my students are currently reading standard wise:
• Fifth-grade: Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• Sixth-grade: A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens , The Hound Of The Baskervilles by Conan Doyle
• Seventh-grade: The Village By The Sea by Anita Desai, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• Eight-grade: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Ninth-grade: Anne Of Green Gables by L.M.Montgomery
There is a lot more in the year that they have to read & I am going to ensure that their reading experiences should aid them towards a better future not only for themselves but for the entire world … if not the cosmos.
To be precise, a true student Theosophist is the one who reads & puts ones good reading into action. I want my students to bring about a change in the corruption of humanity, which they will only be able to fathom through constant tutoring, research & READING. They have a right to their future which will be my oblivion … yet; I will not be selfish to deny them their Earth like paradise. As Angel Gabriel himself through the mercy of Allah (God) stated:
“Muhammad, READ … in the name of thy Lord who created man from a sensitive drop of blood, who teaches man what he knows not, read!”
Our younger generation needs to go back to proper reading to know what they do not but not for the sake of self-glory, but for the sake of the glory of that one merciful sensitive drop of blood … read! This is the true mission of the 21st century, & the new story of mankind … which was once old but like a cycle, has returned to cloud our guilt & to be the harbinger like Saint John the Baptist for our new story … our new brave story.
Let not words create doubt but let knowledge & wisdom take its course. If you understand my riddle then follow the path it suggests, in the name of that sensitive drop of blood, READ!
CLASSICS: Why we should encourage children to read them
