Kepler Education’s Student Magazine
What’s Inside:
Sick of Shadows
Essay by Carly Raquipiso
Photographs by James Beauchamp, Wesley Johnson, Sullivan Hadley, and Elaina Warner
Artwork by Cora Abetti, Margaux Foucachon, and Spenser & Sullivan Hadley
Murder in the Mansion, Part 2 A short story by Sullivan Hadley
A
L etter from the P resident of K e PL er e du CAtion
Dear Kepler Students, Parents, and Faithful Readers,
It should come as no surprise to you that, as I write this letter, I am thinking of your education and what it means in light of a student publication like The Eccentric. In a word, your work here signifies a proper commitment to the noble art of craftsmanship. In a world that tends to celebrate potential over actual achievement, striving to learn some “new thing” over learning to do one thing really well, craftsmanship requires refined skills. And skills can only be developed by experience and practice.
Aristotle suggests that a lack of experience actually diminishes our power to take a comprehensive view of admitted facts. Stated more concisely, we really learn the thing we are studying by hands-on experience, by putting our theory into practice. Experience is how one turns an art into a skill. Skills are developed through practicing our art: giving it your best, learning from your mistakes, and getting closer to the image you have in your mind with each new attempt. As Doug Stowe notes in his work, Wisdom of Our Hands, “Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract, and distant.” Our passion for learning will not be engaged and sustained if there is not an outlet for that learning. This is why learners teach, readers write, and scientists build rockets. In my estimation, that’s the kind of education you are receiving when you contribute to The Eccentric. (It’s been so delightful creating content and submitting it to The Eccentric, you didn’t even know you were learning, did you? Ha! You can run but you can’t hide.)
Finally, I want to submit to you that craftsmanship has a moral component to it as well. In his delightful book, Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew Crawford claims that “the moral significance of work that grapples with material may lie in the simple fact that such things lie outside the self.” Said another way, when we fix broken things or create artifacts, although we are employing our own faculties to do the work, the thing itself is not us. And that thing that requires our assistance belongs to the realm that C. S. Lewis calls “other and outer.” In other words, we have to consider what that broken washing machine needs to work properly again. We have to contemplate what image or figure is in that slab of marble waiting to emerge once we chisel away the pieces of marble that are not the image. We have to negotiate with the canvas and the brush or the paper and the words in order to manifest that which will be. Real craftsmanship doesn’t attempt to bend reality to fit our desires or needs; instead it forces us to bend our will to meet its specific needs.
All of this pontificating on craftsmanship is simply to say to you, now that you have finished your courses this year, find a way to use what you’ve learned. Find a way to apply with your hand that which has been cultivated in your head and your heart. That’s where your education becomes refined, where experience gives way to realized knowledge, where art becomes skill, and where practice becomes craftsmanship.
Congratulations on another issue well done!
By God’s Grace and for His Glory, Scott
Postma
President, Kepler Education
L etter from the s tudent L ife C oordin A tor
Greetings, Students and Kepler Families!
Welcome to the Spring edition of The Eccentric, Kepler Education’s student magazine. Thanks to our hardworking Student Council volunteers who helped gather submissions for this issue! Here, you will find wonderful examples of the creativity, passion, and hard work of the students at Kepler Education. These stories, photographs, and artworks were a labor of love. In creating these, our students are imitating the boundless creativity of our God. Many other authors, including Dorothy Sayers and J. R. R. Tolkien, have pointed out that God is the Supreme Creator. Our creativity both reflects his original creativity and is part of how we extend His rule and reign throughout the world, thus fulfilling the original creation mandate to take dominion over the world (Genesis 1:28). This guides our mission here at Kepler Education—to help equip our students to faithfully use their talents, interests, and passions to glorify God and love their neighbors as themselves. A liberal arts education prepares students to do this in a wide range of callings. We want to help them sharpen the tools of creativity, persuasion, logical thinking, and calculation that will enable them to pursue God’s call throughout the rest of their lives.
When we create something—just because—we are getting close to the heart of God’s creativity. The entire creation is utterly unnecessary. God did not need us, whales, or tulips to make Him happy. In the triune dance of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God was eternally happy. But, God chose to create a universe and fill it with countless examples of His creativity. He also chose to create us, as His image-bearers, to reflect His character and glory in all that we do. This issue of The Eccentric is a small celebration of that continuing drama—that ultimate story. I encourage you to pursue something creative this summer, just because. For the love of the thing. Slow down and take pictures of God’s creation. Paint it. Write a poem about it. Write a story. Compose a song. Get outside and celebrate the beauty and complexity of God’s world.
It has been a joy and privilege this year to serve you as Kepler’s Student Life Coordinator. I look forward to seeing many more submissions and celebrations of your creativity next Fall! Have a wonderful Summer break!
Dr. Gregory Soderberg Student Life Coordinator
n ote from the s tudent C oun C i L P resident
My fellow Keplerites,
This year has flown by, and I can hardly believe it’s over so soon. I enjoyed getting to know so many of you over the Kepler Quad, and at the events this year! Among Us was especially fun! I’m not terribly good at writing letters, so I’ll keep it short, and end with a riddle. What do you get if you stab a bowl of lettuce 27 times?
I hope to see many of you at this year’s End of Year Festival (there will be some fun games this year), and I hope you all have a great summer!
Shannon Beauchamp, Student Council President
FRIDAY, MAY 23–SATURDAY, MAY 24
s i CK of s h A dows
by Carly Raquipiso
The cathedrals had stood amid the calamity, feeding the culture of the West into one of robust education and religion. They were blessed. But the West waxed fat and kicked, spiraling into the Enlightenment, an age that stood proud like the babbling tower once did. In the babbling, the Romantic poets rose, hungry for the spiritual and grasping for it with the same lust for the forbidden and slavery to the human senses. The poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote The Lady of Shalott during this time, the poem itself being a narrative reflecting the values of his ideologies.
The very first stanza introduces the meter and rhyme scheme used for the entirety of the poem: AAAABCCCB . All lines of A and lines of C are in iambic tetrameter, while lines of B are in iambic trimeter, establishing that all descriptions in the poem revolve around the relationship between “many-tower’d Camelot” (Tennyson 1842, 523) and “The island of Shalott” (Tennyson 1842, 523), and this relationship between Camelot and Shalott remains the structure of every stanza, though the poem does not introduce its titular character, the Lady of Shalott, until the end of the second stanza. She is preceded by information on the outside world, such as the “barley and rye” (Tennyson 1842, 523), the road to Camelot, the river flowing by it, and eventually the “Four gray walls, and four gray towers” (Tennyson 1842, 523) where the Lady abides. The sparse information regarding the Lady juxtaposed with the abundant information about the world surrounding her establishes
the Lady as isolated and mysterious, and it is no wonder that “Only reapers, reaping early” (Tennyson 1842, 524) know of her, and only by a “song that echoes cheerily” (Tennyson 1842, 524).
At last in Part II of the poem there is a description of the Lady. She is described as weaving a “magic web” (Tennyson 1842, 524) ceaselessly, because she has heard a whisper tell her that “a curse is on her” (Tennyson 1842, 524) if she looks upon Camelot. How she knows there is a Camelot and from what sights she weaves the web is revealed to be a mirror in which the “Shadows of the world appear” (Tennyson 1842, 525). Colour is prominent in Part II, as it is punctuated with “colours gay” (Tennyson 1842, 524) in the web as well as “red cloaks of market girls” (Tennyson 1842, 525) and “crimson” (Tennyson 1842, 525) in the mirror. But her isolation is once again communicated in how she “hath no loyal knight” (Tennyson 1842, 525). Seeing the stages of life in funeral marches and later two newlyweds strolling, the Lady of Shalott expresses her discontent, saying “I am half sick of shadows” (Tennyson 1842, 525).
But in Part III, the dazzling shadow of “bold Sir Lancelot” (Tennyson 1842, 525) enters the mirror. Lancelot replacing Camelot is significant especially in juxtaposition to “remote Shalott” (Tennyson 1842, 526). Lancelot represents not only Camelot but the outside world in general, having an image of a knight kneeling to a lady on his shield and the “Galaxy” (Tennyson 1842, 526) on the trappings of his horse. Colour has been prominent in Part
III as well, with “brazen greaves” (Tennyson 1842, 525), “red-cross” (Tennyson 1842, 526), “yellow field” (Tennyson 1842, 526), “purple night” (Tennyson 1842, 526) and “coalblack curls” (Tennyson 1842, 526). But once Camelot has resumed its usual position in the poem, the Lady of Shalott hears the shining knight sing. “‘Tirra Lirra’ by the river, Sang Sir Lancelot” (Tennyson 1842, 526). Camelot and Lancelot monopolize the stanza, reflecting how the Lady’s heart has been moved. She abandons her weaving and sees the real forms, first a “water-lily bloom” (Tennyson 1842, 526) and then a glimpse of Lancelot. This comes at a dreadful price. The mirror becomes “crack’d from side to side” (Tennyson 1842, 527), web floats about and the Lady cries “The curse is upon me” (Tennyson 1842, 527)
Part IV of the poem begins once more outside of the Lady of Shalott’s abode, taking care to describe “the stormy east-wind straining” (Tennyson 1842, 527), the flooding stream, and “the low sky raining” (Tennyson 1842, 527). The Lady of Shalott is discovered to have descended from her towers, and she finds a boat. Then “round about the prow she wrote, The Lady of Shalott ” (Tennyson 1842, 527). Why so? Because she knows—or at least believes—that she is doomed to die. She sets her gaze on Camelot “Like some bold seër in a trance. Seeing all his own mischance” (Tennyson 1842, 527), and “at the closing of the day she loos’d the chain, and down she lay” (Tennyson 1842, 527), assuming the position of one in a funeral ship as she heads to Camelot. Not only is the day ending, but so too is the year, as indicated by the “leaves falling on her” (Tennyson 1842, 527). Colour, prominent both when the Lady amused herself with shadows and when she saw Lancelot,
has lost its vibrance, with “pale-yellow” (Tennyson 1842, 527), “glassy” (Tennyson 1842, 527), and “snowy white” (Tennyson 1842, 527). In the building tension as the Lady floats to Camelot the poem confirms her impending death: “They heard her sing her last song” (Tennyson 1842, 528). Her song is described not as cheery but as like a dirge. Her blood freezes and her eyes darken. Though dead on arrival, as she floats she is called “a gleaming shape” (Tennyson 1842, 528), perhaps like the first real form she saw, only dead. People of every class know of her now. More importantly, they can see her. “Knight and burgher, lord and dame,—round the prow they read her name, The Lady of Shalott ” (Tennyson 1842, 528). The otherwise jovial kingdom pays their respects to the corpse. Lancelot, whose song convinced her that shadow was not enough, pauses to muse “She has a lovely face; God in His mercy lend her grace, the Lady of Shalott” (Tennyson 1842, 528). Thus ends the poem. The Lady of Shalott certainly attains the fairytale-romanticized appeal the Romantic Poets held in high esteem. Tennyson was no mere Romantic, however. He was a Transcendentalist. As such he believed that artists such as himself could reincarnate the “higher truths” that could be seen in the now outdated literature called “the Bible.” Just as the Lady loses her mirror, her web, and eventually her life out of love for Lancelot, so too must the artist blemish his once pure artistic lens, art, and humanity to communicate the higher truths to the world he so dearly wishes to save; one must endure a kenosis of sorts. The mind of the artist, which is described as but shadows, is elevated to the role of Plato’s Realm of Forms, and the poet thinks he can communicate better than God. Transcendentalism fails
artists. Tennyson, unable to reconcile faith and reason, closes his ears to the Tirra Lirra that draws one out of shadows forever. The Lady baptismally crosses water, but never leaves it. Tennyson imagines a song that gives one false hope because he would preserve his life, and so loses it. That is why he must console himself with a shadow of self sacrifice.
The Lady of Shalott is the tale of Medieval love and mystery written through the lens of the Romantic Era. It depicts a struggle between pursuing beauty for beauty’s sake and beauty for truth’s sake, a perennial struggle for those made in the image of a Maker they deny. God in His mercy lend us poets grace.
The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse (1888)
u nsung h ero : r eview
by Grey Franks
Genre: Christian Drama
Directors: Joel Smallbone and Richard Ramsey
Rating: PG
$500,000 gone “down the drain” and moving away from family is never an easy situation. Now thousands of miles from Nashville, can David Smallbone bring the money back into his pockets and feed his family, or will he and his family perish?
Unsung Hero is a film that is based on a true story. The movie’s title comes from the song Unsung Hero written by the Australian band, For King and Country. The movie tells of true events and circumstances about the family of the lead singers of the band. Joel Smallbone stars as the lead role in this film. Courageous faith and sensational miracles are portrayed so well and realistically, it gives this motion picture a heartwarming and inspiring feel to the soul. As well as trials and challenges which give the cinematic backstory an attention-grabbing and intriguing feel to it.
David Smallbone, along with his pregnant wife and six kids, has just lost a bucket load of money and because of this, he now must make a new start with no money in a foreign country. Desperate to gain a job and struggling to feed his family, it seems as though perishing is inevitable. However, the one thing this fam-
ily does have is Christ Jesus. With lionhearted faith, positive attitudes, and many prayers, can the whole family dig out a way to make it work or will the family’s name be forgotten? Will prayers and anxious faith be enough to get them through?
The film gives the viewers a sense of hope as they witness how God faithfully answers the family’s prayers through other people and other circumstances. Watching people performing small kindly acts to the Smallbone family and seeing how God answers their prayers remind viewers of how powerful prayers can be. It also reminds viewers of how small acts can make a significant impact. Watching this movie, you will never get tired of all the miracles that God does and of all the prayers that He answers. Witnessing this elegant film, you will see that God is able to make everything beautiful, even if things look or seem bad to you. This film has definitely gone to the top of my favorite movie list.
“You make everything beautiful in its time.” - “You Make Everything Beautiful,” For King and Country
Cardinal in Winter
by Cora Abetti
The Mountain Bluebird by Margaux Foucachon
by James Beauchamp
Snowy Day Robin
The Pink Spring Tree by Elaina Warner
m urder in the m A nsion
P A rt 2
by Sullivan Hadley
This made me turn my head and stop to think. If he knew something that I didn’t, then he might be of help for figuring out the supposed death of George. But then again, it might be rather a bigger problem than a bigger help to have more people involved in it. After thinking about this for I don’t know how long, I answered to him, “Who are you?” I wanted to start with a basic question, and maybe figure out more before answering him. But, almost immediately after questioning him, I remembered my quest for the servants’ quarters, and said, “Never mind that. It’s up the hall inside a room. Only the door on the left leads you into his study. He should be there. And possibly dead too.” And I turned to head to the servants’ quarters. As I headed back, I heard him say, “Oh dear, oh dear.”
As I went along, I passed through the kitchen and smelled something good cooking up in there. Just out of curiosity, to see who was cooking, I popped my head in for a moment. Inside was Jordana and Mrs. Lewis. I then pulled my head back out to hopefully not be seen, but I was too late. Mrs. Lewis called out, “Harry, how’s George? He said he wasn’t feeling well earlier.” Uh oh. I slowly walked back into her line of sight, and said, “I think he’s feeling just fine right now.” Which was true. If he was dead, he wouldn’t feel a thing, although if he’s alive and taking I don’t know, a nap, then it is just a “I think.” “Oh good,” said Mrs. Lewis. “I hope that he’s feeling fine enough to chat with you.” I didn’t respond, just nodded my head, and walked out of the
kitchen saying, “Excuse me, but I have someone I need to talk to, so, it would be nice to chat, but…” “Yes, yes,” replied Mrs. Lewis. Finally, having got to the servants’ quarters, I inquired around to see who all was there. There were all but two of the servants, who were supposed to be sick in bed. To fully understand the grandeur of a great house, you can observe the servants. Having a nice full team to manage the house, or in this case, the mansion, which would almost always be too big for whatever size family you had, was always nice, and gave you some respect in your neighborhood and community. They had a kitchen maid, by the name of Elizabeth, or Eliza for short; she was one of the ones sick in bed. The other sick servant was the gardener. His name was William. He was a German immigrant who needed some good work, and came upon George, and has been with the Lewis family for almost 15 years now. He was their first hired hand to come to them to help them. These two were married two years ago and have not moved out from the Lewis’s for lack of money. They are the most trustworthy and the most trusted of the servants in the mansion, and so they have a sort of elevated rank that puts them, in a way, superior to their friends from a working point of view. The table maids were Kendrick and Anna; they were inseparable friends, both of a paler complexion, and it was always hard to look into their eyes and see what was going on in there, quite unlike several of the other servants. The remaining servants hardly had any pay and are not even worth even naming here.
After learning of the sickness of William and Elizabeth, I headed back to the quirky man in the brown vest to see what he was up to, because, now seeing that I could not interrogate the secret-hiding servant, I was going to interrogate someone else. I walked back into the library living room that is adjacent to the study and found the door to the study just floating open, where it is commonly just closed, as we saw from the earlier mishap. Entering the study, I saw George talking with the man who had come in earlier, and I stood there with my mouth agape, and George said to me, “Meet Detective… uh…. What was it again?… I just can’t remember… Pardon me, but Mr. Detective, would you care to repeat your name?”
“Oh, no I would not,” replied the detective with a genial sounding voice, but impassiveness in his eyes. “My name is Nicholas. Nicholas Bauman. But please, call me Nick.” With this sentence, he turned to look at me with a smile on his face and a smile in his eyes. I raised my hand to shake with him, and we shook. “Nice to meet you. James.”
As soon as I had finished saying this, the detective promptly sat back down and continued his conversation right where I had interrupted it with George again, with the focus as if I was not even there anymore. While George was answering one of his questions, Nicholas handed me a slip of paper and mouthed the word “Go.” Once the slip was in my coat pocket, I told George that I would see him in about 15 minutes for dinnertime. “Oh, is dinner almost done already?” said George. I nodded in affirmative and left the room to go for a walk with my slip of paper around the mansion once.
I stepped outside and felt the chill settle inside me. It was fall, and the dark of night was coming in, that time right before sunset that
is the most chilly before seeing the sky shine brightly in its unique way that warms you internally and spiritually but makes you no less colder physically. Determined to get my walk in, I set off at a quick pace going to the opposite side of the house first to pass the servant’s bunkroom first, to pass by the kitchen second, and finally the study, which happened to be the only room with a window on the eastern side of the house. Passing the servants’ quarters, I heard some laughter coming from in the bunk. Distinctly, the voices of Elizabeth and Jordana. The sound was chilling to the bone, and this did not influence the cold setting in on me from the darkness. Sunset had come when I lapped around that side of the house, and I decided to open the paper now and read it before it got too dark to read outside.
It was a nice and loopy sentence. My best memory of it is scratched into my journal here:
Obviously, the true nature of the loops and curls and swirls that were in his writing cannot be fully and rightfully given the justice they deserve unless you so find Nicholas and ask him for something like a signature, or something of the sort.
I finished the lap of the mansion, entered the front door and heard congenial talk coming from the dining room. I could only assume that I had taken longer than fifteen minutes, or that dinner had finished early. It was the latter of the two. I double checked my watch as I entered the dining room. George waved at me at the head of the table, with an empty seat beside him that was obviously waiting for me. Walking past the 5 or so servants to my seat, I apologized for being late, but before I could
finish, Mrs. Lewis interrupted me, “No need. Dinner finished earlier than expected. What were you doing out there in the cold?” “Hannah,” replied George, “Would you let him just sit, he hasn’t even sat yet, and you’re asking him questions about what he was doing. And I can answer that question for you.” George nodded for me to sit down and continued talking. “James was going for a quick walk around the mansion to get some fresh air.” “At this hour?” replied Mrs. Lewis in disbelief. “It’s so cold out there!” I interjected before George could say something else. “When I started the sun hadn’t even set, it set really fast tonight.” “Mmhmm,” said Mrs. Lewis, signaling that
the conversation was over. That dinner was warming. Whether it was the contrast from the cold outside, the smiles on everyone’s faces, the color of the candles refracting the color of the sun as if it still was not set, or maybe even it was the stew that we had for dinner.
One thing that I know though was that Hannah looked very worried about everything going on and had that look of suspicion that always means nothing good. Ever. Whether she was just eyeing down the servants because of an incident earlier, or she was just being a nosy mistress, I could not tell. But I could tell she looked worried, and that, in the words of the great Travis Tritt, “spelled T-R-O-U-B-L-E.”
by James Beauchamp
The Battle of Mygeeto
Minoan Dolphin by Spenser Hadley
Minoan Bull Leaping by Sullivan Hadley
t roub L e over t roub L e
Excerpt of a short story by Corin
Batchelder
Bobby Johnson marched out the barn to feed the animals. Whistling a jovial tune, he was in a good mood. His mood could not be better, though his whistling could be improved.
Upon entering the barn he saw Matthew in the corner, doing whatever it was Matthew pleased. At the very grown age of eighteen, Matthew helped to run the farm now. He seemed to think that as just another reason why he could boss his younger brothers around. (Excepting John, who was only a year younger than Matthew, and really needed no bossing around.)
Regardless of what he thought, his younger brothers thought it laughable. They only listened to him when their father was there to back him up.
Matthew looked up when Bobby entered the barn. “Hey you.”
“Hay is for horses.”
“Well, in your case for goats. You don’t go messing around with those horses.” Luke Johnson, their father, was very pleased with his horses and Bobby really could not handle them, and Matthew knew it. Bobby, though saddened that he could not go near the horses, knew his brother was not trying to be annoying, though often times that was his only intention. Matthew was simply making sure Bobby didn’t do something he would regret.
“I wouldn’t: I’m not dumb,” Bobby said.
“You might do more to go about proving that,” Matthew said, squatting down to grab something he had dropped.
Bobby kicked at the ground in response, sending dirt flying at Matthew.
Matthew stood. “Bobby!”
“Sorry,” Bobby shrugged.
Matthew shook his head. “You have penitence written all over your face,” he said sarcastically. He paused.
Bobby slid over to the side of the barn where Trouble, the goat, was housed.
Trouble was an aptly named goat. All he did was cause trouble. None of the Johnsons could tell where the goat came from, though John supposed it was not from any of their previous goats. All of the Johnson boys fought with the goat, but none of them had had as much animosity towards the goat as Bobby. The goat and Bobby fought to the degree where his brothers found his battles with the goat hilarious, and so they thereby kept the goat, just as all properly annoying older brothers ought.
The goat was Bobby’s responsibility, because he took charge over all of the goats, but now they had no goats but Trouble, so he only had the one to care for. The goat caused him nothing but pain. What never occurred to Bobby was, that as the owner of the goat, he controlled its life expectancy.
Bobby grabbed at the feed bucket only to see that it was not there. Sweeping around the place, his eyes fell on the pen, which was short a goat.
“Ah nuts!” he exclaimed crossly. He kicked the side of the post, which was not a good idea. “Tarnation,” he yelled, his foot smarting. The last thing he wanted to do was go traipsing after the goat.
Matt, having heard his brother’s exclamation, came to see what the noise was before
it grew. “What in blazes are you doing?” he asked, completely taken aback.
Bobby ran past him. “Trouble got lose!”
Matthew stared at his brother’s vanishing figure. “You better catch that goat!” he yelled, wondering whether or not Bobby would catch the goat. He had no doubts that Bobby had heard, of course, but he did have doubts as to whether his willful younger brother would actually listen to him.
Bobby burst out of the barn. He stopped at the door way and looked around, but he did not see the goat anywhere. He marched out a little while, but stopped. A most peculiar munching sound was near him. Confused, he looked around, wondering where the noise was coming from. It had piqued his interest, and so now he needed to know.
Unfortunately, the moment he found out what it was he wished he hadn’t. Trouble the goat was eating his mother’s flowers. Bobby cried out and made a wild dash at the goat, who presently looked up at him and, realizing the boy was running at him, turned on his heel and fled.
Then the chase began. The goat ran with ease over the field, and Bobby bounced after him, struggling to keep up, but he made good ground and had nearly caught up with the goat when he tripped on a branch. Down he went, tumbling in the grass, looking up just in time to see the goat vanish from sight, at least sight from the ground.
Bobby stood up sorely, his ankle aching dully. Standing up tentatively, trying his ankle, he became aware of just how hungry he was. His stomach growled, and he sighed to think of catching the goat, by now off who knows where.
He stood and looked to the forest line, where the goat was last seen, and to the house, where his mother would be preparing break-
fast. “Well,” he said, “I don’t need to catch the goat now. I can do it after breakfast… It’s not like he is in any pressing danger. Besides, a creature’d be crazy to try and eat that goat. He can take care of himself for a few hours.” Bobby looked back to where the goat had disappeared once more. He chewed his lip, thinking that perhaps he ought to catch the goat. But, it would take so dreadfully long, for the goat detested to be chased or penned up. Bobby finally determined, chiding himself firmly: Oh, stop your worrying. He’ll be fine, and no one will be the wiser
So, with that, he started limping off to the house, but broke into a slight run when he realized his ankle was fine.
…
Scan the QR code or click the following link to continue reading the story:
https://blog.kepler.education/trouble-over-trouble-bycorin-batchelder/
by Lucy Spencer
Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood, a trumpeting sound is heard. Winnie the Pooh and his friends, while at Rabbit’s, find a great many circular footprints. Rabbit starts to organize an expedition to capture Heffalumps, as he calls the mysterious creatures. Roo is excluded due to his young age. Secretly, Roo starts his own hunt for Heffalumps. After meeting a baby Heffalump named Lumpy, the two friends have an adventure together, leading the others on a wild goose chase, leading Lumpy and Roo to become the best of friends even through hardship.
The Heffalump Movie is a heartwarming story about maturing and acceptance. Lumpy has been trying to find his trumpeting call to communicate with his Mother. He and Roo are unsuccessful and Lumpy becomes increasingly more depressed as the plot goes on.
Roo and Lumpy’s friendship is so inspiring! They are loyal to each other and playful with each other, but when things get serious, they notice and help each other out. Their friendship is a beautiful thing because it doesn’t take them away from their mother's love. They aren’t running away or doing anything forbidden. That is sometimes the broken way we make friends. We befriend someone because of finding common ground in com-
plaining or disliking someone leading to bad decisions and choices together, none of which Roo and Lumpy do.
This movie is like a coming-of-age story. Despite what all of Roo’s friends think about Heffalumps they’ve never even met, Roo meets one and with time admits he was wrong and that Heffalumps actually are quite friendly and playful! Roo becomes best friends with Lumpy and is loyal to him by trying to help him find his mother. Roo has to stand his ground against his friends in believing what he does about Heffalumps, even if he is younger than all of them. Roo and Lumpy’s friendship is so inspiring. Roo sets out to capture his own Heffalump to prove he is mature, but he is faced with a tough decision and he befriends Lumpy despite what the others say. That is the real part of maturing going on here. He had to go against his older friends’ opinions, make his own judgments, and stand firm on them. He befriended the so-called enemy. I think that's what maturing really is. In real life, maturing can sometimes mean losing those friends you had to stand against, but that would only mean they weren’t true friends. I love this movie because Roo’s friends truly love him and want what is best for him. They portray maturity beautifully with acceptance and humility.
Here is a bit of the conversation from the scene when Roo and Lumpy first meet.
“I’m a Heffalump, you could catch me!”
“You can’t be a heffalump!”
“Actually I am.”
“If you're a Heffalump, then where are
your horns and spiky tail?”
“Oh. I don’t know.”
“Are you sure you're a Heffalump?”
“My mummy says I am.”
The animation is so well done. It is playful and colorful and the songs are fun and silly. I love the different personalities of all the animals. However, one criticism would be that Rabbit and Tigger were the most unwilling to accept Lumpy and even rude in their behavior sometimes. I did not like seeing their characters portrayed that way.
Whatever your age, you will enjoy this movie because it has a warm, happy feeling and will bring a smile to your face. I know there are more action-packed thriller movies to watch, but if you ever want a scent of nostalgia and just want to go relax with younger siblings or your kids watch this movie. I know some people don’t love it because they don’t feel it is a true Winnie the Pooh production, but I don't think that is enough to take away from the charming and delightful walk through Hundred-Acre Woods.
Soldier
by Wesley Johnson
The Early Blooms of Spring
by Margaux Foucachon
Iris by Cora Abetti
s ummer C ourses At K e PL er e du CAtion
Jane Austen and the Virtues: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy with Tracey Leary
The beginning of all philosophical inquiry is the search for the answer to the question, “What is the good life?” Jane Austen seeks in each of her novels to answer this question, and does so in the tradition of framing her search in terms of the classical and religious virtues. In his book “After Virtue”, the ethical philosopher Alisdair MacIntyre calls Jane Austen “the last great effective imaginative voice of the tradition of thought about, and practice of, the virtues”. In this class, we will explore Austen’s search and the answers she presents to us for consideration as we read three of her novels along with selections from the great philosophers on the virtues and the vices, including Aristotle, Aquinas, Dante, Plato, Montesquieu, and Lewis, as well as others.
The Odyssey: An Introductory Adventure into Classical Epics with Jacob Douvier
After ten brutal years fighting the Trojan War, Odysseus and his men are finally heading home victorious, but exhausted. However, a happy return is not guaranteed! Join Odysseus as he suffers through terrors and dangers, experiences the wonderful and spectacular, and contends with malevolent gods, captivating demi-goddesses, and monsters. Yet, while Odysseus fights his way home, his home itself is beset with trouble, as his wife Penelope is besieged by suitors who threaten to steal Odysseus’s kingdom, but also kill his son and heir, Prince Telemachus.
Poetry: Attending to Beauty with Levi Gulliver
Poetry is deep. Appreciating something deep takes time, attention, and guidance. Attending is difficult for modern people. Attending to poetry is especially difficult for modern people: poetry books still lack dynamic graphics and slick marketing. Our distracted age pushes us to invest as little time as possible into every endeavor. As a result, we are well-practiced in the art of flitting about from thing to thing. In this course, we will attend. We will read, listen to, and recite great poems from the tradition. We will ask questions and make observations about the poems, but more importantly we will spend time with them. We will let the words work on us, shaping us into the kind of great men and women that have loved these pieces across the centuries. But even more importantly, we will learn to attend, and become more like people who can attend.
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Intro to P. G. Wodehouse with Adam Condra
In the great canon, there are many formal comedies, even divine ones, which end with weddings and the establishment or restoration of harmony for their communities. The work of Dante and Shakespeare and Chaucer has its well-earned esteem in our tradition, but what if you're in the mood for something just a bit more... low stakes? What if you need a palate cleanser? A light repast? A little curio that can nevertheless delight you with the skill and beauty of its composition? Enter Pelham Grenville Wodehouse—P.G. to his readers—the Edwardian master of wit and farce, whose short stories and novels about the mundane absurdities of the British aristocracy have entertained people for a century. In this course, you will be introduced to his work through his most famous characters: the well-to-do gadabout Bertram Wooster and his inimitable valet, Jeeves. Together, this pair traverse the schemes and lunacy of a society with too much time and too much money on its hands, doing their best to undo the misadventures of their friends, and making sure that there is never, ever a wedding at the end of the story.
Planet Narnia: The Medieval Cosmology of C. S. Lewis with Tracey Leary
Dive into the cosmology of Narnia this summer by exploring the mythological and planetary associations of each of the seven books in C. S. Lewis’s beloved series. This course will begin with an overview of Ptolemaic cosmology and Michael Ward’s theory that each of the Narnia books is associated with one of the seven planets of medieval astronomy and the beliefs connecting each to Greek and Roman mythology. Students will keep reading journals noting any planetary and legendary influence for one Narnia book each week and will complete an open-ended final project which gives a comprehensive look at one Narnia book with all of its medieval associations, which can be artistic, written, or recorded in video or audio form.
Creation and the Classics with Rocky Ramsey
What do the great books have to say about God's creation? Have there even been any old classics that cover such topics as, environmental ethics, agriculture, and human health? This course will walk through classics from the 19th and 20th centuries. These works are intensely grappling with modernity and the industrial revolution with a balanced environmental response. Rather than being spoon-fed a modern environmental ethic, we can involve ourselves in the minds of those that actually lived through the transition.
d uAL e nro LL ment C ourses with K e PL er e du CAtion
Kepler Education has partnered with several like-minded institutions to help college-bound students successfully navigate their path to post-secondary education. Whether it is a grant or dual enrollment credits, each of our partners offers Kepler students a unique opportunity and educational experience that is suited to their particular calling and need.
Faulkner University is a private, Christian liberal arts university based in Montgomery, Alabama. With a mission to provide an education anchored by not only intellect but also character and service, the Faulkner experience aims to educate the whole person.
The following courses are fully accredited by The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) through Faulkner University. This means college credits are transferable to any state or private college in the U.S.
Course Offerings for Fall 2025
Western Tradition I with Dr. Scott Postma
A chronological investigation of humanity in Western society undertaken through the study of art, music, literature, politics, philosophy, and theology from antiquity to the late medieval world (ca. 1500 A.D.). The historical experience of man and his cultural expressions and values are interpreted through a Christian worldview as the best means to understand the nature of man. Prerequisite: Eligibility for EH 1301. Offered every semester.
American Cultural History with Dr. Robert Woods
An analysis of the peculiar aspects of American cultural heritage including its European, social, religious, and political background. Offered each fall and spring on ground and online and each summer online.
Technology and Society with Dr. Robert Woods
An examination of key ideas and issues in the history and philosophy of technology through the use of Great Books readings. Readings may include, but are not limited to, works from the Bible, Bradbury, Postman, Aeschylus, Bacon, Lewis, and Berry.
Visit kepler.education/higher-education/ to view more courses offered in partnership with Faulkner University
Colorado Christian University is a regionally accredited University ranked in the top 2 percent of colleges nationwide for its core curriculum by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. CCU offers more than 200 academic program options for traditional and adult students.
Course Offerings for Fall 2025
Koine Greek I with Dr. Daniel Newman
Koine Greek prepares students to read the Greek of the New Testament and other texts from the Hellenistic era (3rd century BC onwards) fluently and enjoyably.
Drawing on the pedagogy of the great language teachers of the past, students will acquire Koine Greek as they are presented with vocabulary and grammar alongside reading and discussing a continuous, compelling narrative right from the outset. This follows the fictitious adventures of Paul, Philemon and Onesimus, and is interspersed with other stories including adaptations of texts from the New Testament and the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament). These ‘sheltered’ narratives largely employ only the vocabulary and grammar to which students have been introduced up to that point. Students will develop an active knowledge of the language through writing and even speaking in Koine Greek. The goal is for students not to substitute English for the Greek, as if they were only solving a puzzle, but to read the Greek, as C. S. Lewis put it, “with no officious English word intruding.”
Christianity and Culture: Recovering Christian Humanism in the 21st Century with Dr. Scott Postma
This course introduces students to the historic tradition of Christian humanism as a normative contributor in the crucial developments of Western culture and a significant participant in the Republic of Letters. Students will explore the historical development of Christian humanism and its influence on the Western tradition while engaging in the conversation of perennial ideas that have occupied the Republic of Letters: faith and reason, Christ and culture, art and literature, and man and modernity (i.e., progress, machines, technology, etc.).
Pre-Calculus with Trigonometry with Jillene Santoro
Precalculus with Trigonometry is a classical, Christian approach to the liberal arts of mathematics and geometry. Galileo Galilei proposed, “Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe.” Math is the language... Math is a language? A language implies communication. While a language, like any language, can be learned by textbooks and one-way imparting of information, the ability does not imply it should be taught solely in that manner. To become fluent, one must speak conversationally. Utilizing a state-of-the-art eLearning system for the foundational framework of didactic instruction and diligent development of intellectual skills and habits, this course is designed to shepherd students through and beyond the curriculum and into deeper understanding and wisdom by employing various discussion methods of participation via the canons of rhetoric.
Visit kepler.education/higher-education/ to view more courses offered in partnership with Colorado Christian University
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