Schmoop! (There it is!)

"Schmoop" is a real word; it's a Yiddish term that means to move forward. And it's also the name of a new website of

summaries,
analysis,
links,
audio,
video,
and photos on US history, literature and poetry.

Schmoop is in beta, so it's still growing, but it's definitely worth exploring, whether you are a public or homeschooling student, teacher, or a person who loves to learn.

I picked a random entry: Edgar Allan Poe, "The Telltale Heart." I learned a lot in a very short amount of time. Here's an example, from a section called "Why Should I Care?":

<"If you like stories that test and sharpen your analytical skills, while scaring you with portrayals of the extremes of human behavior, this is the tale for you. It's also only ten paragraphs long, so you can read it in one sitting, which is what Edgar Allan Poe had in mind. He believed that if a story isn't read through in one sitting, much of the impact is lost (source).

This story is an attempt to create an extremely brief piece packed with as much information as possible, though perhaps not the kind of information we get in many stories. No names. No locations. It's as if the narrator meets you, by chance, in a dark café and tells you his darkest secrets, knowing he will never see you again...

Since it's fiction, you can look at it objectively and learn more about your own feelings concerning murder, confession, and related topics. If you have to think about these things, why not use a guy like Poe, who apparently thought about them most of the time, to help get you thinking?"

<


This is what I call edutainment. I spent about twenty enjoyable minutes rummaging around in Schmoop. My take on it is: it needs to offer a LOT more books, but the information is easy to access, well-researched and interestingly presented, and links are provided to similarly well-researched, credible sources, so that you can get a deeper understanding if you want it.


To visit Schmoop, go to http://www.shmoop.com/ .