Acorns and Commonplace Journals
on writing and remembering
Welcome to my newest readers, fellow bibliophiles, and educators!
A single acorn lay under our front doormat.
I had noticed the bump at Thanksgiving but left it there. After all, such a brave, efficient squirrel should be rewarded. Two months later the acorn disappeared. Remembered and found.
It might be the same with ideas. We make note of something in our phone, on a sticky note or envelope scrap. I do start new documents all the time with word bits. Months pass, and I return to the quote scrap to see if it was a true seed or a fancy.
Sometimes we simply like an idea or grouping of words and note them to remember, much like the practice of commonplacing. Thomas Jefferson is often credited with the idea of a commonplace journal, making deliberate notes of things he wanted to remember like quotes, news, poetry, verses, et al. He kept two kinds: a legal one and a literary one. You can read Jefferson’s fine handwriting in those same journals at the United States Library of Congress website.
Charlotte Mason narrows the idea of commonplacing, calling it the hunt for literary beauty. It’s more than liking. It’s noticing. It might even mingle with what L.M. Montgomery’s Emily calls “the flash”—
Tonight the dark boughs against that far-off sky had given it [the flash]. It had come with a high, wild note of wind in the night, with a shadow-wave over a ripe field, with a greybird lighting on her window-sill in a storm, with the singing of ‘Holy, holy, holy’ in church, with a glimpse of the kitchen fire when she had come home on a dark autumn night, with the spirit-like blue of ice palms on a twilit pane, with a felicitous new word . . . then Emily felt that life was a wonderful, mysterious thing of persistent beauty. —Emily of New Moon
Think of scavenger hunts for beautiful, striking, or fascinating ideas expressed in a memorable way. Charlotte Mason observed that “Such a diary, carefully kept through life, should be exceedingly interesting as containing the intellectual history of the writer” (Formation of Character).
Kathryn Forney of the Charlotte Mason Institute offers a number of suggestions should you want to pursue storing these seeds. I’ve condensed her list:
Be Quality. Dignify the habit of commonplacing by investing in quality materials. If you think it’s a quote you’ll want to think about for a while, write it in a book that will last.
Be Brief. If you’re trying to copy an entire book, you probably just need to choose a favorite quote that reminds you of everything you love about the book.
Be Free. Each person is different, so no two commonplace books should or could look alike. There is no judgment in commonplacing, only curiosity.
Be Creative (if you want). I find it fun to play with different colors, position of quotes on a page, size of font, etc.
Be Flexible. There is value in a physical commonplace book, but if a notebook, pen, or anything else becomes an obstacle to growing (or helping your student grow) in love and appreciation for well-crafted sentences and stimulating ideas, then adapt the form to suit your student.
On my desk
I’m working on two long-form articles. One is about how to evaluate the job of a teacher or any worker. It began as a word scrap on a single document in December. The other is a joint article with fellow writer and educator Sara Osborne (see Joy of Reading and Reading Art). It’s about recalling students to find beauty in nature. I’m also in full-prep mode for spring workshops at The Classical Thistle Conference on March 1-2 at College of the Ozarks in Hollister, Missouri. I get to lead a discussion of C.S. Lewis’s essay “High and Low Brows” and present “Teaching Gems from C.S. Lewis” again. CSL’s works are woven with bits of anecdotes and commentary on the teaching life. Through his experiences, Lewis speaks of several processes: unlearning, irrigating, knowing less, receiving, stirring the imagination, and humbling ourselves as teachers. Through an array of his fiction and nonfiction, his gentle manner brings encouragement to all of us in our teaching journey.
On my nightstand
I’m reading lots of Locke, Montesquieu, and Crèvecœur with my high school students as we work our way to the American Revolution. I am eager to read William Hogeland’s Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1-July 4 1776 (2010). It’s a complex story of the Continental Congress where Samuel and John Adams negate Pennsylvania’s pro-reconciliation election results, isolate John Dickinson’s fervent support of rapprochement with England, and persuade the Congress to declare independence.
Life in Medieval Times by Marjorie Rowling (1973). Not as readable as I had hoped for thirteen-year-olds. You can tell I’m on the hunt for medieval curriculum, especially for books my families can find. I really enjoy Williams Stearns Davis’s Life on a Medieval Barony (1922), but quality reprints are hard to come by.
When Towns Had Walls: Life in a Medieval English Town by Walter Buehr (1970). I like Buehr’s narrative and illustrations the best, but again, few if any reprints.
Do you have a commonplace practice? Perhaps a medieval resource idea for teenagers? Do comment below. Let’s share ideas to help one another.
Christine
Jefferson’s commonplace journal was, if Adams’s commonplace journals are any indication, a common practice among the Founding Generation … at least those on par with Jefferson and Adams.
Jefferson link is now repaired!