Tea at Trianon: Quiet Students Are Just as Capable as Loud Ones

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Quiet Students Are Just as Capable as Loud Ones

My mother was told that I was not accepted into the National Honor Society because I was "such a quiet girl." Unbelievable. From Introvert, Dear:

Needless to say, I didn’t have the space to think, the mental and emotional capacity to focus, nor peers who saw me as anything other than someone who needed help simply speaking loud enough for people to hear. Because of the environment in Miss M.’s classroom, I continued to form unhealthy ideas about myself and my introversion: one, that I needed to “come out of my shell;” two, that my quiet and observant nature was not just a problem but a weakness; three, that my achievements and contributions were less valuable because I couldn’t communicate as readily or in the same way most people did; and four — well, I could go on about all the things I’ve had to unlearn and am still unlearning to this day, but that isn’t the main reason I share this story. After all, I’m sure other quiet students have had similar experiences. In fact, Shona Maher, another introvert, tells a story eerily similar to mine. (Read more.)