The Hovel Archives

The In-Between

Leave a Comment / Criticism, The Hovel / By Megan Andrews

I’ve been reading a lot of children’s literature recently, due to my role as the Elementary teacher here at CenterForLit. We just finished reading C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and I was struck by the youngest brother, Edmund’s, character development. Not a baby any longer to be coddled by his mother or sister, but not yet mature enough to claim a leader’s role like Peter, Edmund is half-baked, sullen, and in-process. When he first comes to Narnia, he falls in with a dangerous crowd. Immature and lustful for recognition and power, he pledges his loyalty to the White Witch and betrays his family to secure his ambition, all within the first few chapters of the story. Not a stellar beginning, you might say. Sheepishly, I will admit that he’s the character with whom I identify the most…

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The Lost Transcendental: Moral and Theme

Leave a Comment / Education, The Hovel / By Emily Andrews

In my last post, I examined the so-called ancient Greek “transcendentals,” truth, goodness, and beauty, and suggested that if these concepts are meant to describe qualities that bridge the gap between heaven and earth, we might be missing one. And, in fact, this lost transcendental should stand in front of the other three, like a lens that necessarily colors our attitude toward them…

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“The Wind in the Willows” and the Wonder of the Everyday

Leave a Comment / Criticism, Literary Analysis, The Hovel / By Ian Andrews

A dear friend and former teacher of mine recently said of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, “If ever there was a children’s book written for adults, it is this one.” I whole heartedly agree, and not only because of the stunning beauty of Grahame’s prose. By way of explanation, I’d like to share a passage from Grahame’s story that, I think, aims right at the heart of his project…

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Fall Pinterest Fails and the Messy Real

Leave a Comment / Homeschooling, The Hovel / By Megan Andrews

Fall has officially arrived here in northeast Washington. As the air adopts a chill, we are barreling towards the season of harvest parties and hay rides, hot chocolate and flushed faces, pumpkins and apple-cider. Tradition holds that this season affords us all a glowing opportunity to throw open our homes to company. Thanks to Pinterest, we have a vivid picture in our minds of the model autumnal home: decorated but not cluttered, festive but not garish, tidy but just the right amount of “lived in.” If you’re anything like me, you are already laboring under the weight of this impossible standard, maybe opting for a feeble mini pumpkin on your desk as your token tribute to the season…

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Running the Race: A Lit Lesson in Preparation for Labor Day

Leave a Comment / Homeschooling, The Hovel / By Adam Andrews

Man, that Apostle Paul must have been a lit teacher! Consider how well he chose his metaphors: In a passage of Scripture that is being intoned and memorized by homeschooling parents all over the world this week, he urges his readers to “run in such a way as to get the prize…Go into strict training…to get a crown that will last forever” (I Corinthians 9:24-25). Is there any better image to describe the upcoming year than a race?…

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Of Lists and Laws: Busy Lives and Back-to-School Plans

Leave a Comment / Education, Homeschooling, The Hovel / By Missy Andrews

August is upon us, and if you’re anything like me, in addition to the sunshine and heat, it brings with it a crushing realization that the long list of summer to-dos that we penned with great hope in late May is not going to be accomplished. Mine sits before me, a glaring accusation. Where did the time go? The bathroom with 18-year-old wallpaper I was going to re-decorate, the vanity I was going to refinish, the pictures I was going to rescue from the vaults of my computer and finally frame on my walls, the books I was going to read, the coffee dates I was going to have with neglected friends and family, all of these proclaim my insufficiency…

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The Lost Transcendental: My Only Concern for the Classical Education Movement

Leave a Comment / Criticism, Education, The Hovel / By Emily Andrews

Prince Hal is one of my dearest friends. I met him at a critical moment in my life, and in fact, it is not entirely an exaggeration to say he almost single-handedly saved my education. It was the middle of my senior year at Hillsdale College and in order to graduate from the Honors Program, I had to write and defend an interdisciplinary thesis. Having majored in literature and history, I decided to combine my two favorite areas of study by researching Shakespeare’s memory of English history as portrayed in his Henry plays. Every narrative of history is biased according to the unique perspective of the storyteller. I wanted to see what set Shakespeare’s perspective apart from the chroniclers who told the story of England before him…

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The Humility of Socratic Discussion

Leave a Comment / Education, Literary Analysis, The Hovel / By Guest Author

We spent the June session of the Pelican Society’s Office Hours pondering teaching with Socratic discussion. Socratic discussion and teaching is relatively new to me, I’m embarrassed to admit. This probably isn’t as true as I believe, for at its most basic level, Socratic teaching is asking questions, and doesn’t everyone ask questions all the time? Anyone who’s been around a preschooler (or been a preschooler, for that matter) knows this is true. Anyone who’s wondered something, or had a curiosity about something, is asking questions…

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“The Penderwicks in Spring” and Expectation Games

Leave a Comment / Criticism, Reviews, The Hovel / By Megan Andrews

Do yourself a favor and grab the latest Penderwicks book by Jeanne Birdsall as soon as you can, because it was wonderful! Surrounded by tissues, red-nosed, and teary, I am remembering all of the reasons that this little family is my favorite. Now, before you roll your eyes and pronounce me a hopeless sap for crying over a kids’ book, let me explain…

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“Tempter, methinks thou art too late:” Grace and Community in The Scarlet Letter

Leave a Comment / Criticism, Literary Analysis, The Hovel / By Ian Andrews

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s legendary novel, The Scarlet Letter, gets a bad rap. It’s set in the Puritan town of Boston, Massachusetts in the 1640s, a time during which the church dictated literally everything about society: not only public policy and government, but also private morality. Hawthorne introduces his main character, Hester Prynne, as she begins what will be a lifelong punishment for the sin of adultery — public condemnation via a scarlet letter ‘A’ worn on her breast…

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