Earlier in the season, I posted a list of books I'd like and wished for the time to read them. The books came and I'm making the time. I started with Myths from Mesopotamia by Stephanie Dalley. She includes so many details and end notes that my interest was stirred beyond the story of Adapa, and I found myself thinking of ancient stories in new ways. Practical matters like missing bits and lost cultural assumptions. I wanted the kids at our homeschool cooperative to have the same experience, but I knew it'd be difficult to acquire sufficient copies of the text. "Ye have not because ye ask not" is a piece of ancient literature I was taught well. On a whim I looked up Ms. Dalley and sent her an email asking if I might copy the pages for the kids. To my great delight she replied the seven pages I needed were an allowed amount to copy. It felt so good to send out those pages to my students. It's going to be such a great class.
Ms. Dalley also suggested we watch her documentary on finding the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. You can see it HERE on YouTube. It is exactly the kind of thing we want the kids to be watching. The careful detective work, the critical contributions and leadership of a woman, and the terrible losses we are suffering because we'd rather fight instead of fight for peace, these are all values every kids should be exposed to. Sometimes it's not just a book, sometime's it a new world or a new hero. Sometimes it's all of the above.
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