Schooled

Portrait of Samuel Clemens as a youth holding a printer's composing stick with letters SAM. Daguerreotype Hannibal Mo / Taken Dec. 1850 / Age 15.

NOTABLE, QUOTABLE: Thanks to an email from the Library of Congress about "this day in history," we learned that Friday (Nov. 30), was Mark Twain's birthday. 

Unfortunately, neither CJ nor Annabelle have read any of Twain's books yet (something we need to rectify). I, on the other hand, took a college lit class all about Twain back in the day. What an enjoyable semester that was.

To learn more about the renowned writer, we viewed a BrainPOP video. The brief biopic told of Samuel Clemens' days as a riverboat captain on the Mississippi (a job from which he drew his pen name, Mark Twain, which is a water navigation depth measurement). 

We learned that Twain spent many years as a journalist before writing his books, and that after he became a famous author, he traveled all over as a sought-after speaker. Twain's satire and use of 'common' language (dialects and such) are two of the things that made him unique.

The end of the BrainPOP video noted that Twain became famous for witty quotes, and cited one in particular: "I have never let schooling interfere with my education." 

I stopped the video at that point, and the kids and I talked about that quote. I thought it was rather apropos, given our super nontraditional approach to schooling.

We did a little research after the video, and quickly found out that the quote didn't originate with Twain. An article by Matt Seybold of The Center for Mark Twain Studies notes that novelist Grant Allen "inflicted this bit of self-satisfied wit upon his readers half a dozen times, starting more than a decade before it was ever attributed to Twain."

That said, clearly Twain shared the sentiment, since he repeated it. Though he received honorary degrees from Oxford and Yale, Clemens had no formal education beyond primary school. However, he certainly didn't subscribe to the notion that that was ideal. Rather, in the posthumously-published essay “Taming the Bicycle,” Twain wrote that those who bragged about a lack of formal education were potentially  “fooling other thoughtless people into going and doing the same as he himself has done.” 

I asked the kids to write a little something about what they thought about the quote. Here's what Annabelle had to say. ...

The quote "Never let schooling interfere with your education" is frequently (and erroneously) attributed to Mark Twain. In my interpretation, this quote means that while learning in school is a major part of one's education, it shouldn't limit what one learns. One should always strive to look outside the box and see what else they can find on their own accord. It could also be modernly applied to how some people feel that the way most public schooling teaches children is incorrect or morally wrong, as some people find learning much easier when doing rather than listening (hands-on vs. hands-off learning). While the true meaning of the quote is up for interpretation, many agree with the first meaning I presented.

And here's what CJ had to say. ...

Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was an influential author, best known for his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, as well as its sequel published nine years later, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

A phrase commonly attributed to Twain is "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." Whilst there is evidence to suggest that Twain did not coin the phrase, that is not the main focus of this short essay. Rather, I will explain my interpretation and opinion about the phrase:

I believe the phrase to mean that Twain does not let his "schooling" (indicative of an educational institution's instruction) invade his "education" (or, as referred in modern-day vernacular, "street-smarts.") Personally, I believe that "schooling" and "education" in the context of the quote are largely separate, so I don't understand why one would interfere with the other. Notably, the quote places priority on "schooling" over "education."