![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/homeskul.gif\")
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illustration by Aaron Meshon<\/em><\/p>\n In spite of the impression the Dowbrigade may have given Maureen Carey’s Despite the blankets and the posture, this is not a sleepy bunch. Fueled Well, all we can do is express our condolences for these poor kids. It can’t be the lenght or opaquity of the prose, since our all-time Why then did we have such trouble with Ecco? Perhaps because, between from the Boston Globe Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" illustration by Aaron Meshon In spite of the impression the Dowbrigade may have given in his slashing condemnation of the practice, home schooling is making inroads not only in the heartland, but even in liberal Massachusetts, and not only at … Continue reading
\n in his slashing
\n condemnation of the practice<\/a>, home schooling <\/strong>is making
\n inroads not only in the heartland, but even in liberal Massachusetts,
\n and not only at matchbox colleges like Patrick
\n Henry University<\/a>, but
\n even at the "World’s Greatest University"<\/a> (no, not BU). Take a look at
\n this description from today’s Boston
\n Globe Magazine<\/a>….<\/p>\n\n
\n Cambridge living room looks more like a teenage slumber party
\n than an
\n English class.
\n Eight
\n kids sprawl
\n across
\n the faded Oriental rugs and overstuffed armchairs in various degrees
\n of slouch. Two huddle under blankets, and several wear knit hats, even
\n though the room is comfortably warm. One ponytailed boy sits cross-legged
\n on a trunk. Toe socks poke out from blue jeans and sweats, while a
\n pile of shoes waits at the door.<\/p>\n
\n by tea and homemade challah, the teens – who hail from Cambridge, Newton,
\n even Reading – are 300 pages into Umberto Eco’s weighty novel The Name
\n of the Rose, and they’re slogging forward, undaunted by the dense, medieval
\n mystery. In this class, students never take a quiz or write a report.
\n They don’t even have homework. All the reading happens here on the
\n second floor
\n of Carey’s multifamily house, where she’s led literature classes for
\n home-schooled students for eight years. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n We can’t imagine having to work all the way through Ecco’s unreadable tome
\n "The Name of the Rose". Normally a fan of conspiratorial, convoluted
\n fiction, the Dowbrigade made several attempts to tackle this bestseller,
\n but repeatedly found it more useful for pummeling students about the head
\n than for enjoyable or illuminating reading.<\/p>\n
\n favorite novel remains Thomas Pynchon’s "Gravity’s Rainbow", which we are
\n planning on reading for a personal record sixth time during our upcoming
\n South American expedition, thanks to a timely heads-up from our "Cyber-vecino"
\n Ion<\/a>. Copyright issues aside, GR is now safely stashed inside our iBook,
\n awaiting the balmy beaches and uninterrupted hours that beckon from south
\n of the Equator.<\/p>\n
\n the lyrical riffs and overlaid themes, counter-themes and sub-themes
\n of Gravity’s Rainbow, Pynchon makes us laugh, consistently. Humberto
\n Ecco seems, to this reader at least, completely devoid of a sense of
\n humor. Our heart goes out to Maureen Carey’s students….<\/p>\n