The Gifted Homeschoolers' Forum

If you are homeschooling a gifted child you might find this site useful: Gifted Homeschoolers Forum.

(Hat tip: Prufrock's Gifted Child Info Blog)


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education

The wrong solution to a problem

There is a story about a man who has lost his keys. A man comes out of the office building late one night and finds his co-worker looking intently on the ground under a street light. He goes up and asks what is wrong. The co-worker says I lost my keys. They both look for awhile. Finally the first man asks where is the last place you had them. The co-worker says well I dropped them over there in the parking lot. The guy then asks why in the world are you looking here? The co-worker explains the lighting is so much better here.

Too often people try to use the wrong solution to a problem. Often a proposed solution may be flashy, sound good and even may seem like it should work, but it still will be dead wrong.

I thought of the above story while reading about a recent attempt by a L.A. city council member to solve the problem of obesity in South-Central Los Angeles. Her solution is to stop allowing new fast-food restaurants to open. In other parts of LA fast food restaurants are 16 percent while in South-Central LA it is a whopping 45 percent.

Think about that for a minute. In America today we have choices on where we eat. No one dictates or tells us where we have to eat. As consumers we are in the driver's seat. Restaurants which meet our demands are successful and stay in business. In South-Central Los Angeles many of the successful ones serve fast food, not because they want to, but because that is what the customer demands.

Trying to force healthier restaurants into South-Central LA to solve obesity is like looking for the keys under the street light. It won't solve the problem. People will continue to eat where they want to eat.


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Technorati tags: parenting, children

Mini nuclear power is going forward

Late last year I read that Toshiba was developing a micro-nulcear power plant. It looks like there is an increased interest in small nuclear power plants. Popular Mechanies reports that Mini Reactors Show Promise for Clean Nuclear Power's Future:

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Higher fuel prices and increased carbon emissions have been giving nuclear energy a boost. So far this year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received licensing requests for 19 new nuclear power plants. That number could increase exponentially, along with the number of suitable sites for a plant, if the NRC approves a brand-new design for portable modular units developed at Oregon State University.
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Growing up many science fiction stories had dazlling ideas about the promise of nuclear power. Nuclear power would make energy cheap and plentiful. Nuclear powered rocket ships would take us to the stars.

Nuclear power got put on hold for a couple decades due to fears. Maybe now we're recognizing that there are trade-offs and nuclear power is a reasonable option.

(Hat tip: Instapundit)


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Technorati tags: nuclear power

Yet another study which finds all day kindegarten is bad

Fairly often there seems to be a push for full-day kindergarten, and then full-day preschool. The idea seems to be that a little kindergarten is a good thing, so more must be better. (This is kind of like saying that we need a little iron in our diet, so everyone should eat a pound a day.)

Several studies have refuted this basic idea. The results of another study was recently published and it found Full-day kindergarteners' reading, math gains fade by 3rd grade. This was fascinating:

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Overall, the study found that the reading and math skills of children in full-day kindergarten grew faster from the fall to the spring of their kindergarten year, compared to the academic skills of children in part-day kindergarten.
However, the study also found that the full-day kindergarteners' gains in reading and math did not last far beyond the kindergarten year. In fact, from the spring of their kindergarten year through fifth grade, the academic skills of children in part-day kindergarten grew faster than those of children in full-day kindergarten, with the advantage of full-day versus part-day programs fading by the spring of third grade. The fade-out can be explained, in part, by the fact that the children in part-day kindergarten were less poor and had more stimulating home environments than those in full-day programs, according to the study.
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Read the last line a second time. Humm, a little time at home in a more stimulating environment is good. Maybe someone will come to the conclusion that all day at home is best!!! Sounds like homeschooling could have some advantages.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education

A congressman wants to force schools to get children out in nature

I recently got an email about The Fed's Cure for"Nature Deficit Disorder." Allen Quist starts with:

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Claiming to have the remedy for "nature deficit disorder," Congressional Democrats (along with some Republicans) are in the process of passing a new federal education program for all 50 states. The bill is called "No Child Left Inside" and is a major expansion of the federal education train-wreck, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
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At first I thought this was a joke. I realize April 1st has come and gone, but I didn't believe anyone in Congress would want to force schools to make sure children got enough outdoors time. Don't get me wrong, I think it is important for children to run outside, to play in the mud, to walk in the rain and to be with nature. BUT schools should not be focused on this.

I dug around a bit and found there really is a Congressman who is sponsoring such a bill. US. Repressentative John P. Sarbanes is pushing the bill. Wow.

Many have complained about the No Child Left Behind law. They believe that the focus on testing has ruined the education progress.

Yet here are some people who think that by passing a law children will come to know and love nature. I believe it is more likely that after suffering through school nature programs most kids will end up hating nature and quickly retreat back to their homes.

Sad.


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Technorati tags: government schools, public, school, abuse, power, children, education

The rest of the story - school wrong to strip search girl

Last year a court ruled that it was OK for a school to strip search a 13-year-old girl to see if she was hiding ibuprofen:

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Safford Middle School officials did not violate the civil rights of a 13-year-old Safford girl when they forced her to disrobe and expose her breasts and pubic area four years ago while looking for a drug, according to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.
The justices voted 2-1 in favor of the Safford School District on Sept. 21. The decision upheld a federal district court's summary judgement that Safford Middle School Vice Principal Kerry Wilson, school nurse Peggy Schwallier and administrative assistant Helen Romero did not violate the girl's Fourth Amendment rights on Oct. 8, 2003, when they subjected her to a strip search in an effort to find Ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory drug sold over the counter and in prescription strengths.
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A divided US appeals court has ruled, 6 to 5, that the school was wrong:

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"Directing a 13-year-old girl to remove her clothes, partially revealing her breasts and pelvic area, for allegedly possessing ibuprofen, an infraction that poses an imminent danger to no one, and which could be handled by keeping her in the principal's office until a parent arrived or simply sending her home, was excessively intrusive," Justice Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote for the majority.
The majority found flaws in the school's logic that a tip from another student justified the action.
"The self-serving statement of a cornered teenager facing significant punishment does not meet the heavy burden necessary to justify a search accurately described by the 7th Circuit as 'demeaning, dehumanizing, undignified, humiliating, terrifying, unpleasant [and] embarrassing'.
"And all this to find prescription-strength ibuprofen pills.
"No legal decision cited to us, or that we could find, permitted a strip search to discover substances regularly available over-the-counter at any convenience store throughout the United States."
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I'm glad the court reversed the ruling. I'm sad that it was so close. It should have been 11 to 0. With such a close ruling it is clear the basic issue has not been resolved.

I would love to know if Safford Middle School Vice Principal Kerry Wilson, school nurse Peggy Schwallier and administrative assistant Helen Romero still have jobs.

(Hat tip: Joanne Jacobs)


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Technorati tags: government schools, public, school, abuse, power, children, education

People v. machines

I like this quote from Dan Galvin's Thought For The Day mailing list"

"You can be totally rational with a machine. But, if you work with people, sometimes logic has to take a back seat to understanding."
-Akio Morita (1921-1999) Co-founder of Sony


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Technorati tags: thought, Dan Galvin, Akio Morita

Improving education: hire good teachers, fire bad teachers, and train teachers to be better

Ray Fisman has a good article in Slate - Hot for the Wrong TeachersWhy are public schools so bad at hiring good instructors? His article starts with:

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PS 49 in Queens used to be an average school in New York City's decidedly below-average school system. That was before Anthony Lombardi moved into the principal's office. When Lombardi took charge in 1997, 37 percent of fourth graders read at grade level, compared with nearly 90 percent today; there have also been double-digit improvements in math scores. By 2002, PS 49 made the state's list of most improved schools. If you ask Lombardi how it happened, he'll launch into a well-practiced monologue on the many changes that he brought to PS 49 (an arts program, a new curriculum from Columbia's Teachers College). But he keeps coming back to one highly controversial element of the school's turnaround: getting rid of incompetent teachers.
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Ray says there are three basic ways to improve education, hire good teachers, fire bad teachers, and train teachers to be better. But research has shown that it is hard to predict who will be a good teacher:

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For instance, in 1997, Los Angeles tripled its hiring of elementary-school teachers following a state-mandated reduction in class size. If L.A. schools had been doing a good job of picking the best teachers among their applicants, then the average quality of new recruits should have gone down when they expanded their ranks—they were hiring from the same pool of applicants, but accepting candidates who would have been rejected in prior years. But as researchers Thomas Kane and Douglas Staiger found, the crop of new teachers didn't perform any worse than the teachers the school had hired in more selective years.
This unexpected result is consistent with the findings from dozens of studies analyzing the predictors of teacher quality. Researches have looked at just about every possible determinant of teaching success, and it seems there's nothing on a prospective teacher's résumé that indicates how he or she will do in the classroom. While some qualifications boost performance a little bit—National Board certification seems to help, though a master's degree in education does not—they just don't improve it very much.
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This leaves government schools with two options, firing bad teachers and training teachers to be better. Teacher unions have pushed for laws and rules that make it very hard to fire bad teachers. Training can only take you so far, and loses its punch if the teachers don't have to pay attention.

The result is children suffer because public schools can't get rid of bad teachers.

(Hat tip Friends of Dave)


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Technorati tags: government schools, public school, public education, education

Thoughts about health, food, and parenting

Janine was a child when her body lost the ability to produce insulin. This is called Type 1 Diabetes.

There is another type of diabetes, where the body doesn't produce enough insulin for the food intake. Our bodies are designed for a certain level of food. Our society is rich enough that most have more than enough to eat. When we eat a lot of food, the beta cells in our pancreas have to produce more insulin. And especially when we eat foods rich in sugars and fats, our pancreas has to run at a higher level than it was designed. Like a car engine, running the pancreas too high, too long, will wear it out. This is type 2 diabetes. The body can still produce insulin, but not enough. Historically this was a problem many adults had in their fifties and beyond. After years of being overweight and eating a bit much, some adults would develop type 2 diabetes.

One of the sad trends in the last couple decades is young adults and even children developing type 2 diabetes. ScienceDaily recently warned of a Coming Epidemic Of Type 2 Diabetes In Young Adults:

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In a new article, University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital pediatric endocrinologist Joyce Lee, M.D., M.P.H, warns that the most damaging effects of childhood obesity have yet to surface, and will likely result in an epidemic of type 2 diabetes among young adults, leading to a greater number of diabetes complications, and ultimately, lower life expectancy.
“The full impact of the childhood obesity epidemic has yet to be seen because it can take up to 10 years or longer for obese individuals to develop type 2 diabetes,” says Lee, a member of the Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit at Mott. “Children who are obese today are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes as young adults.”
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Some things in life are unavoidable. For the most part, these are trials that we just need to endure.

I wonder though if more people suffer from avoidable tragedies. Too often we make poor choices. Too often we don't think about the consequences. Covey has a line about when we pick up one end of a stick we pick up the other end of the stick. We can make choices, but once we've made a choice we are stuck with the consequences.

The huge increase of obese children who will suffer for the rest of their lives is an avoidable tragedy.

What are factors which contribute to this trend? Lack of physical activity and unhealthy eating habits are the obvious "cause" but it is more than just that.

In the United States, McDonald's is the source of 10 percent of family meals according to expert Harry Balzer of the NPD Group. Contrast this to Janine's experience as a child where her family ate out once a year.

The fast food trend is closely related to the changes in family structure. The increase of single parent homes and working mothers has left us with a generation of children at risk. Children who spend time home alone are more likely to eat to entertain and comfort themselves. (They are also more likely to drink and use drugs, but that's another post.)

Parents of both sexes are spending an average of ten or twelve hours less per week with their children than when they did in 1960 according to Journal of the American Medical Association study published in the New Yorker. Parents can't teach their children healthy eating and an active lifestyle if the don't spend much time with their children.

Children spend more of their leisure time in front of a TV or computer than every before. Not surprisingly, obesity rates increase with TV viewing.

School also plays a part in the modern day tragedy. This study out of New Hampshire notes the detrimental effect of school of physical fitness.

This study measured fitness levels and found that 88% of children can meet the minimum fitness level upon entering school. Only 47% of children in their second year of school achieve the minimum fitness levels for the same fitness tests. At the age of ten, when an aerobic capacity and recovery test is also administered, only 22% of the children in NH can achieve the minimum fitness levels, and as the students age, the percentage of children achieving these minimum levels continues to fall.

Regardless what is going on in society or at school, ultimately the responsibility to raise healthy children lies with the parents. And if the parents don't do their duty, their children will face a shortened life span and lifetime of weight related disabilites.



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Technorati tags: parenting, children

Another good resource for learning history

Last week Diamond to Be recommended AwesomeStories. She said:

"See this one also, http://www.awesomestories.com/. This website is full of primary resources for history, and it's amazing!"

I've just spent the last half hour checking out the web site. She is right, it is amazing. There are very extensive resources on hundreds of topics. One caveat, the site does ask people to register.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education

The Carnival of Education is up

This week's Carnival of Education is hosted by Steve Spangler.

If you would like to submit to the next Carnival of Education, go here.


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Technorati tags: education, school

Uh.....thanks, I guess

Today, Baby Bop began speech therapy. About 3o minutes before the speech therapist was due to arrive, I got a call from my neighbor. Her car wouldn't start and she and her son were stuck at the library. I jumped in the car with Baby Bop and left my second and third daughters at home while I went to pick up my neighbor's son. When I got back, the speech therapist had already arrived.

The speech therapist was quite complimentary of my older children. She went on and on about how impressed she was with my daughters. However, I wasn't sure how to respond to her last compliment.

"Your daughters are so wonderful. I wouldn't never have guessed that they were homeschooled."


Uh.....thanks, I guess.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education

Rushing to fix education, without understanding why it is broken

Imagine you've just had a small accident so you go see a doctor. You think you've broken your arm. You start to talk with the doctor, but he interrupts and asks you to try on a set of glasses. Doubtfully you put them on. He asks, "Do you feel better now?" You tell him no, you start to mention this recent accident, but again he interrupts and suggests you put on an ear warmer. "Does that help?" Again you say no, a little louder this time. He pauses for a second and says "Well, maybe your blood sugars are high, I'll give you a prescription for insulin."

Most of us would be wondering if we were in the twilight zone and we would be edging towards the door to escape from this crazy situation.

The doctor was trying to provide solutions before he understood the problem. You never, never proscribe until you've gathered data and done some diagnosis.

Yet too often politicians seem to skip over the first step.

Recently a group of politicians have decided the Time is ripe to fix education. (Hat tip: Edspresso)

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Fixing the nation's schools is the civil-rights priority of this century because so many of them — particularly those serving poor kids — are not delivering high-quality service, a group of prominent city, civil-rights and education leaders said Sunday.
In the lobby of one of Denver's sterling charter schools, New York City schools chief Joe Klein, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, state Senate President Peter Groff and Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien, among others, said they would do whatever it takes to push education onto the crowded political agenda this fall.
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The politicians are planning to force other politicians to address education. There is no discussion of why decade after decade education gets worse in America. They don't seem to have a clue on why only half of the students in Denver who start school will end up with a high school diploma.

Education is an easy issue to get attention on. It is important to parents. People recognize there are so many problems and children are suffering for life with a poor education.

This new movement, the Education Equality Project, has a real nice sounding, but vague, set of goals:

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The Education Equality Project is a non-partisan group of elected officials, civil rights leaders, and education reformers that has formed to help ensure that America finally brings equity to an educational system that, 54 years since Brown v. Board of Education, continues to fail its highest needs students. The project will take on conventional wisdom and the entrenched impediments to real reform, focusing on teacher quality and pay; accountability for results; and maximizing parents' options. It will also challenge politicians, public officials, educators, union leaders, and anybody else who stands in the way of necessary change. This means challenging laws and contracts that preserve a system that fails students. The one measure of every policy, regardless of the depths of its historic roots or the power of its adherents, must be whether it advances student learning.
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The mission statement seems to be all sound with no substance. There is no mention of their understanding on why there is a problem. They'll probably end up trying to change the class size, or hire more teachers, or some such ineffective response. Then five years down the road education will be worse, but they'll be able to say they tried to fix education.

Sad.

Remember, you first have to understand a problem before you can fix it.


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Technorati tags: government schools, public school, public education, education

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Red Sea School.

Shaun has a set of lovely quotes about summer scattered among the many posts.

Enjoy.





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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education, Carnival of Homeschooling

Keep the camel's nose out of the tent

Camel's Nose In The Tent is a good reminder about how benign intentions can led to unintended consequences. Camel Story Tales, Folklore & Legends has this version:


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One cold night, as an Arab sat in his tent, a camel gently thrust his nose under the flap and looked in. "Master," he said, "let me put my nose in your tent. It's cold and stormy out here." "By all means," said the Arab, "and welcome" as he turned over and went to sleep.
A little later the Arab awoke to find that the camel had not only put his nose in the tent but his head and neck also. The camel, who had been turning his head from side to side, said, "I will take but little more room if I place my forelegs within the tent. It is difficult standing out here." "Yes, you may put your forelegs within," said the Arab, moving a little to make room, for the tent was small.
Finally, the camel said, "May I not stand wholly inside? I keep the tent open by standing as I do." "Yes, yes," said the Arab. "Come wholly inside. Perhaps it will be better for both of us." So the camel crowded in. The Arab with difficulty in the crowded quarters again went to sleep. When he woke up the next time, he was outside in the cold and the camel had the tent to himself.

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I was reminded of this story as I read NHELD's analysis of S. 3076: Home School Opportunities Make Education Sound Act of 2008. The bill is suppose to give homeschooling families tax deductions for expenses relating to homeschooling. NHELD has several concerns about the bill. Here are a few:


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a) The bill does not define the term, “home school”. Right now, there are many definitions of the term, “home school”. For example, does the bill affect those “home schools” that are operated by the public school system in which students must participate in the curriculum generated by the public school but may follow that curriculum at home, or does the bill affect those “home schools” that are considered “private schools”, or does the bill affect those “home schools” that are affiliated with correspondence schools, or does the bill affect those “home schools” that are independently run by individual parents alone? The bill does not answer those questions.

b) Who will decide what the definition of “home school” is? The IRS, the Congress, each state’s legislature, the courts? Again, the bill does not specify.

c) Who will decide what expenses “qualify” as deductible? Answer: the IRS. That’s because the bill calls for “rules” to be established. “Rules” are promulgated by the agency that will implement the law. In this case, that’s the IRS.
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This bill seems like a bad idea. Mary Nix agrees. I encourage you to study it some and then contact your Senator. I will ask my Senators to oppose the bill.

I don't want the government's nose in my tent.




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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education

A little update

I haven't been posting much lately. If I did post, the topic would be foster care, not homeschooling. Our "foster boy" has been with us about 8 months. Sometimes I wish we had an anonymous blog, like a dusty frame, so that I could give more details about what is going on. But since we use our name, I'm pretty limited in what I can legally talk about.

When people ask me how long "Baby Bop" will be staying, I reply, "Somewhere between two weeks and the rest of his life." Since last week, Baby Bop is no longer on the reunification track. Sometime in November the court could move to terminate parental rights, clearing the way for an adoption. I say "could" because the system moves pretty slowly. I'm expecting a few continuances and other court delays. After parental rights have been terminated, his adoption paperwork could take anywhere between 3 to 9 months. Our adoption home study is already completed, so there should be no delay on our part.

As a homeschooler with a healthy mistrust of government programs, I'm quite happy that the court moves so slowly. I don't want a world where the government can easily and permanently remove children from their parents. On the other hand, when you are caring for a young child, it doesn't take very long for you to become the parents from the child's point of view.

We actively supported the reunification process. As more time passed, we became more and more concerned about the trauma reunification could cause. We are the only home he can remember and his bio family are virtual strangers.

I believe for this and other reasons, the bio parents chose to drop out of the reunification process.

Sometimes I don't know what scared me more; Baby Bop leaving or him staying. Baby Bop is a complicated little guy with some long term health issues. The longer he is with us, the more confident I become that we can handle these challenges.

I would say more, but Baby Bop needs my attention.


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Technorati tags: foster care, parenting, family, children

Carnival of Cool Homeschoolers is up

While you are waiting for the Carnival of Homeschoolers, check out the latest edition of the Carnival of Cool Homeschoolers.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education

Summer homeschooling

We are very academically focused in our homeschooling from September to early June. Janine schedules what our girls are to study and do each week. But in the summer we relax and let our girls play more. In times past we've tried various approaches to keeping the learning process going while letting our girls have a little fun.

This summer is our most relaxed. We still have a foster care boy which keeps Janine pretty busy. The older two girls and Janine went off to a church camp for a week, and then we were gone for another week visiting family and attending a wedding. All these things have broken up our normal summer programs designed for stealth learning.

Yet our daughters are learning:

Our second daughter continues to try cooking various foods.

We have our weekly trips to the library. And often two trips. Cause you know I've finished the fifteen books we checked out four days ago.

Hours of playing Civilization IV has given them a little insight into history, technology, and how societies develop. (And I've learned that my youngest daughter is a bit blood thirsty.)

We had an short discussion of tactics and strategy after watching Return of the King Saturday.

Our oldest signed up for band camp. She wanted it enough that she paid part.

And then there is all the socialization now that they have more time to play with their children.

Even though we've stopped the official program of education, it is nice to see our daughters are still learning.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education

The Southern Cross in a Southern Sky

I greatly enjoy the Astronomy Picture of the Day. This picture was posted earlier this week:











It is by Yuri Beletsky, who game me permission to post this on my blog.


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Technorati tags: Yuri Beletsky, Southern Cross

Another book I've requested from the Library - The Call to Brilliance

Stef at ... and these Thy gifts found an interview by Gregory Mantell with Resa Steindel Brown in Homeschooling and The Call to Brilliance in the first ten minutes and last five minutes of this:



"The Call to Brilliance" looks interesting. I've requested The Call to Brialliance from my library. Here's the web site. Resa is a homeschooler. She says that by working with children we can help them discover their brilliance.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education

Pretty impressive - may be making progress in cancer treatment, at 19

Eva Vertes got excited about medicine at age ten. She's been chasing her passion ever since. She gave this TED at age 19 in February 2005:



I am impressed.

An interview with her from last year started with:

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Eva Vertes isn’t a normal young person. At least, that’s what our culture would tell us. Her discovery of a compound that inhibits brain cell death was regarded as a step toward curing Alzheimer’s and won her Best in Medicine at the International Science Fair at age 17. Quickly labeled a microbiology prodigy, Eva now aims to find better ways to treat — and avoid — cancer.
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This is the kind of passion we are working to develop in our daughters. They may not rise to this level, but we keep exposing them to various subjects and support their interests.

(Hat tip: This Week In Homeschooling)


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Technorati tags: passion

The 12th Edition of the Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival is up

Yet another homeschooling carnival is up - Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education

A lack of common sense?

Paul Jacob writes a set of columns about various issues. Yestereday Paul reporteds on an incident in Canada that had me wondering what was the judge thinking - Parental Authority: Grounded:

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A daughter sues her father for grounding her. A court agrees that the punishment was too severe. The court overrules father, overturns punishment. What?
This is happening in Canada. So it’s not anything we in the States need worry about. Yet.
I didn’t quite believe this story at first. But it’s true. The unnamed 12-year-old was forbidden to go on a field trip because she disobeyed rules about her use of the Internet. She chatted on websites that her father had tried to block. And she posted pictures of herself that he regarded as inappropriate. He says this is simply her latest misconduct.
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(Update I - 11 July 08)

Paul Jacob gave me permission to include the rest of his column:

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Justice Suzanne Tessier of the Quebec Superior Court acts as if grounding your child were tantamount to child abuse. And how dare Dad be concerned about online predators and such!
The lawyer for the father, Kim Beaudoin, says it’s the job of parents to set boundaries. Er, yes. Of course it’s the job of parents to raise their own children, not the state’s job. Or does Judge Tessier believe that a bureaucrat should be installed in every home, lugging a hefty manual stipulating exactly when a parent may send Timmy to his room?
Should a judge who would make such a ludicrous, totalitarian decision even be allowed to remain on the bench? At the very least, Tessier should be spanked. And no TV for the rest of the week.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Spunky made the point that teachers function as "surrogate parents." It looks like judges believe they should also be parents. Won't anyone let the parents be in charge?


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Technorati tags: parenting, government

Interesting - Mapping Infectious Diseases

HealthyMap has a Global disease alert map.

The map is interesting, but I have to wonder how accurate it is for less developed parts of the world. It shows several dozen outbreaks in the United States, and only five in all of South America. I belief that there are probably more in South America, but that they are not being reported.

Still the map is interesting.

(Hat tip: Technology Review)


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Technorati ta