Conspiracy Theory

I stumbled across an interesting rant about A Very Short, Very Sad History of American Education During the Last 100 years. The author, Bruce Deitrick Price, makes the argument that the down turn in education was a result of deliberate planning.

Our top educators circa 1900 decided that American students really did not need so much reading, writing, and arithmetic, not to mention science, history, geography and all the rest. What American students needed was more group activities and social engineering. These educators drew up a blueprint for greater conformity and passivity, with the right people in control...

Our early educators decided they would first take control of the teachers colleges. The country’s future teachers could be radicalized and sent to the small towns of America, where they would reprogram (i.e., dumb down) the public schools and what was taught there. These “progressive” teachers would create a New American Child--more uniform, more pliable, with fewer academic skills, and a reduced ability to think independently.

I think my father-in-law would agree with this one. He began college with the intent of becoming a teacher. He didn't make it through one "education" class before quitting in disgust.

Recently, when going through my late parents' keepsakes, I found a paper written by my grandfather when he was a math professor at San Jose State University. The document was undated, but I believe it was written sometime in the 1960's. His thesis stated that math training for school teachers was lacking. He gave specific example of basic math concepts that current teachers could not teach their elementary students because they themselves had never been taught them.

A few years ago, I had this analysis confirmed. While talking to a friend who was finishing student teaching, I was struck by a comment she made. She said, "I decided to teach kindergarten or first grade because I couldn't handle the second grade math."

I was stunned. At the time, I just assumed she wasn't very bright. Now, I wonder if the problem wasn't her, but the training she received to become a teacher. My friend went on to become a teacher in a poor intercity school. She is very devoted to her students and makes extraordinary efforts to help her students. However, she can't give them skills she hasn't got.

Mr. Price has quite a few interesting education rants on his website. He takes on what he calls the look-say or whole word fraud in A Tribute to Rudolph Flesch.

I don't know if I totally buy the idea that the problems in education are totally by design. But, it is worth a second look.


Either way, I’m glad to be on the outside looking in. There’s no place like home(school).


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Related Tags: Crisis in Education, dumbing down, Bruce Deitrick Price, public education, homeschooling, Conspiracy Theory

The Carnival of Homeschooling is up - week 54; it is a different carnival each time you load it

Gary at HomeSchoolBuzz is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling. He built the carnival is such a way that it is a different carnival each time you load it into your web browser.

While you are checking out the carnival, you might also check out Gary's Blog Watch.


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

Some fun stuff from the Cool Digest

The following are all from the Cool List Digest:

Have you ever wondered just what 200 Calories looks like?

Sonic Boom, Sound Barrier, and Condensation Clouds may take a long time to load if you have a slow connection to the internet. There are dozens of pictures showing what a sonic boom looks like. Pretty cool.

The Harlem Globetrotters are artists with basketballs. This is a video of a guy doing amazing things with a yo-yo.


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Technorati tags: food, calories, sonic boom, yoyo, yo-yo

Carnival of Family Life and Semicolon's list of book reviews

This week's Carnival of Family Life is from Hawaii at An Island Life.

Each Saturday Sherry at Semicolon puts up a cool post with some special HTML which allows others to add to her post. She invites her readers to include a link to a book review they have recently posted. For the Saturday Review of Books: January 6. 2007 she is up to 38 reviews.


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Technorati tags: family, life, parenting, children, book, review, book reviews

School Administrators Gone Bad

More on the cheerleader scandal:

This news report had more information about misconduct by the school administration.


CHEER SQUAD PUTS ADULTS IN FEAR FROM . . .
PEP GIRLS GONE WILD

After the cheerleading coach quit, the school district hired independent investigator Harold Jones, whose $40,000, 70-page discipline report led to the resignation of McKinney North's principal Linda Theret - mother of the girls' ringleader, Karrissa Theret - just days before Christmas.

An assistant principal, Richard Brunner, is fighting the district's decision not to renew his contract; the decision followed the Jones report.

Now, teachers and parents are coming forward to complain that Theret created a climate of fear bolstered by a culture of retaliation, litigation and Texas employment laws that made firings easy.

Ward said some teachers had changed grades for these girls because they feared for their careers.

"The principal made sure that every teacher knew that their job was on the line. I can't tell you how many times I thought I was going to lose my job," Ward said. "I was scared to death. It was a nightmare."

With the adults too frightened to stand in their way, the cheerleading clique were emboldened; the limo incident occurred right in the middle of the Jones investigation.

"The biggest problem was nobody was willing to do anything to stand up to these girls," Ward said. "Parents [of other students] were worried that their children would be harassed if they said anything."

In the end, Jones' report found that Theret used her power to influence discipline decisions in favor of her daughter and other cheerleaders.

Theret was handed $75,000 and a letter of recommendation as part of her departure deal, which the school board struck following Jones' recommendations last month.

Things fall apart when the adults are "afraid" to do the right thing. I feel bad for the teachers involved, but I'm also sad that they caved in for so long. I'm glad that the the fourth coach to leave in one year went public with the details.

This would have been a non-story if 4 years ago, the first time one of these girls stepped out of line, the school administration had enforced existing rules. But in fairness to the school administration, it is difficult to do your job when parents don't do theirs.






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Related Tags: public education, cheerleaders, homeschool, principal, McKinney, Texas, fab five, high school

You can do homeschooling through college

Our oldest daughter is twelve, so we are still several years from her going off to college, but we think about it often. One of the big concerns in the rising cost of education of universities. Over the last couple decades tuition has climbed twice as fast as inflation.

My brother mentioned that MIT was in the process of putting 1,800 courses up on the internet. It was fun to be reading The Homeschooling Revolution this morning and noticed that Isabel had found (via Education and Homeschool News) a link to the MIT courses.

A Christian Science Monitor article said the MIT site was getting 1.4 million hits a month from all over the world. As more and more courses are put up online I'm sure this number will explode.

It is pretty amazing that anyone can get an MIT education for free. Maybe in a couple years one of our daughters will start checking out the MIT courses.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, MIT, online, course, education

Cheerleaders Gone Bad

Oh..... big surprise!


Cheerleaders' lifestyle is nothing to cheer about

The pouting teenagers were guilty of intimidation, threats, "telling teachers to shut up, using a cell phone in class even after being told not to, cheating on tests, skipping school," added Mr Jones, who interviewed 75 pupils, teachers, parents and school administrators.

Pranks included commandeering Ms Ward's mobile telephone and sending racy text messages to her husband and another coach, and posting sexually provocative pictures of themselves on MySpace, the social networking website. Previous coaches had also complained. One left her post after the head teacher's daughter made an obscene gesture from the sidelines during a football match; another walked out after some of the girls were caught drinking but escaped punishment.

"These girls were at the top of the food chain, they were 'uber-cool', they had the looks – some of them had the money," said Mr Jones. "I talked to a real good-looking football coach and he was obviously scared of them. He had taught inner-city school kids in San Francisco and he said gang members were nothing compared with these girls."

There were two reasons that these "girls" able to get away with so much bad behavior.

A $40,000 (£21,000) inquiry into the McKinney affair detailed how the five girls enjoyed immunity thanks to the fact that one of their number was the daughter of the head teacher.

By the way, “head teacher” is another name for the principal. This article is from a news paper in the UK about an incident that happened in Texas.

It also revealed how, when punishments were finally proposed, indignant mothers rallied to their precious offsprings' defence.

From Texas Cheerleaders Terrorize School:

In December, the principal resigned as part of a settlement in which she received $75,000 and a letter of recommendation for her next job. The former principal's attorney says she denies shielding her daughter from punishment.

That's one of the things wrong with public education. Regardless of how badly a teacher or administrator performs, they can expect to walk away with a settlement and a letter of recommendation. Would you want this woman to be the principal at your child's school?

So, ultimately who's to blame? Nepotism among the school administration definitely played a part, but ultimately the parents are responsible for encouraging bad conduct.

This is also a "good" example of why I don't send my children to public school. I'm reminded of that woman on Dr. Phil who complained that homeschooling ruined her life because she didn't get to be a cheerleader. She doesn't know how lucky she was.


The second article had some discussion about the problem of giving children too much power. That can be a problem for homeschoolers as well.

Rosalind Wiseman, an educator on teens and parenting, and author of the book "Queen Bees and Wannabee's," sees the Texas cheerleading debacle as part of a wider problem with kids and power.

"This is about kids having more power than adults, and them getting away with things no matter how old they are," she said.

Wiseman said that if parents wanted to prevent their kids from running amok, they couldn't be afraid to punish them.

"Some parents today feel that their No. 1 job is to protect their child, and it's not," she said. "Their job is to raise an ethical child, which means holding them accountable for bad behavior."

I agree with Rosalind Wiseman until her last statement.

When it comes to conflicts in school, Wiseman said parents should steer clear of direct involvement, if possible.

Advising parents to "steer clear of direct involvement" can put students at risk. I understand her arguments for letting kids "work things out on their own." However, the parents need to stay actively in the loop. You can't assume a teacher or administrator is going to act ethically. Recent sex scandals involving teachers and students are just one example of that kind of problem.

For more on the story see School Administrators Gone Bad.

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Related Tags: public education, cheerleaders, homeschool, principal, McKinney, Texas, fab five, high school

Wikipedia has an extensive article on Homeschooling

We frequently include links to Wikipedia in our posts. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia which is maintained and improved by volunteers. The syntax is different than HTML, but isn't too hard to master.

The section on Homeschooling is very complete. I didn't see anything major to add. If you notice something important missing, you can update the article. Here is the start of Wikipedia's tutorial.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, Wikipedia

Start off the new year right by sending in a submission for the next Carnival of Homeschooling

The first Carnival of Homeschooling this year was very successful. Help keep this going by sending in a submission for the next Carnival of Homeschooling. You have 49 hours left.

As always submissions are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM PST. Here are the instructions.


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

NEW STUDY OF THE LITERACY OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

Updated post: See comments for explanation.


This report is from the American Institutes for Research.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Twenty percent of U.S. college students completing 4-year degrees – and 30 percent of students earning 2-year degrees – have only basic quantitative literacy skills, meaning they are unable to estimate if their car has enough gasoline to get to the next gas station or calculate the total cost of ordering office supplies, according to a new national survey by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The study was funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Here are a few findings from the study:

More than 75 percent of students at 2-year colleges and more than 50 percent of students at 4-year colleges do not score at the proficient level of literacy. This means that they lack the skills to perform complex literacy tasks, such as comparing credit card offers with different interest rates or summarizing the arguments of newspaper editorials.

This is almost inconceivable to me. Lucky for us that voting rates or are so low. (To be entirely grammatically correct, I would need to say "It is lucky for us.....") Can you imaging how scary things would be if people who can't summarize the arguments in a newspaper editorial or compare credit card offeres offers were deciding public policy?

The literacy skills of college students are directly related to the education of their parents: children whose parents graduated college or attended graduate school have higher literacy than students whose parents did not graduate high school or stopped after receiving a high school diploma or GED.

Despite variations in income, most differences in the literacy of students across income groups are not significant.

Now, I found this interesting. In the end, what mattered most are were the skills of the parents, not the funding of the school. This is in evidence by the similar results of private and public universities. Reguardless Regardless, it is troubling that so many students graduate from college without getting an "education." These missing skills are ones most people assume students learn in middle school or high school.

As a parent, it is not wise to assume that the grade school, middle school, high school or university is going to "teach" your child the skills they need to be successful in life. Yet another reason to homeschool. (To be entirely grammatically correct, I would need to say "This is yet another reason to homeschool." My use of vernacularisms in this post seemed appropriate in the informal atmosphere of the blogosphere.)




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Related Tags: college students, literacy, math skills, college graduates, quantitative literacy skills, The Pew Charitable Trusts, American Institutes for Research

Some other good carnivals

While the Carnival of Homeschooling just celebrated its one year anniversary there have been some other good carnivals out recently:

The Carnival of Eduction came out with the 100th edition at Teaching in the Twenty-First Century!

At Be a Good Dad is the most recent Carnival of Family Life.

If you want to look for other recent carnivals, check out this list at Blog Carnival.


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Technorati tags: education, school, teaching, children, family

Nice thoughts from A Word A Day

As I have mentioned in the past I am on the mailing list A Word A Day. Each day an email is sent out with a new word.

My original reason for joining the list was not to expand my vocabulary, but because the emails also included quotes. I use to collect clean humor and I liked the thoughts included in the emails from A Word A Day. Here are a few sent over the Christmas break:


He who would be a leader must be a bridge.
- Welsh proverb


Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm but the harm does not interest them.
-T.S. Eliot, poet (1888-1965)


The game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy.
-Florence Scovel Shinn, writer, artist and teacher (1871-1940)


The butterfly counts not years but moments and has time enough.
-Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941)



Evil is like a shadow - it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.
-Shakti Gawain, teacher and author (1948- )


One that homeschoolers may truely appreciate:


To freely bloom - that is my definition of success.
-Gerry Spence, lawyer (1929- )


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Technorati tags: thoughts, life, time, success

Carnival of Homeschooling - Week 53 - the Anniversary edition

Introduction:

A year ago we launch the first Carnival of Homeschooling. We are very pleased with how well accepted and supported the carnival has been. 2006 was a good year for the carnival. Many, many people have helped make it a success. Dozens of bloggers have taken turns hosting the carnival. Hundreds of bloggers have participated in the carnival. And on an average week some where between one to two thousand readers will go read the carnival. A big thank you to everyone!

As the anniversary edition we decided to weave the posts in with the traditional gifts given for anniversaries. In 1922 Emily Post published a traditional list of gifts for each anniversary. The first anniversary is suppose to have a gift of paper, the second is cotton, and so on. We’ve tied the posts this week to each of the various gifts. We hope you enjoy this Carnival of Homeschooling.



Body:

Paper (year 1)

Homeschoolers use tons of paper. They read books, magazines, newsletters, blogs, and even research papers. At No fighting, no biting! kat reviews a research paper on the factors that influence parents deciding to homeschool in It was inevitable that we homeschool.

At Homeschooling and Learning Resource Ann Bowers gives homeschoolers some basic techniques for developing reading comprehension and thinking skills.

At SmallWorld is a reminder that as parents are teaching their children, they should also continue their own self education. The Year in Books is a list of books one homeschool mother read in 2006.

Rebecca, the host for last week’s Carnival of Homeschool, writes about her experience in making a book on Heimdall the Guardian.














Cotton (year 2)

Mental multivitamin in From the archives: Let's go. realizes she is happy to run errands in her monkey pajamas and red plaid jacket and Grandma Dowdel boots and red ear muffs

At Pass The Torch Kelly is looking for help in getting organized in 'Tis the season to set goals. An important part of organization is getting the kids to pick up their own clothes


Leather (year 3)

Wouldn't be nice if homeschooling came with a leather bond book of guidelines? From Guilt-Free Homeschooling Carolyn shares a great little quiz to evaluate your homeschool routine in Am I Doing Enough?

Other than leather bound books, guess what else you can find at the library? The Thinking Mother writes about specially trained dogs which listen to children read.













Linen (year 4)

Queen of Carrots from Introducing the World tries to weave good habits and learning into the ordinary activities of our day in Learning Stashes.

Over at Principled Discovery Dana shares A peek in our homeschool: studying Jamestown where her daughter stitched a sampler after learning what young ladies did in colonial times.

In One-Handed Posting Melissa Wiley of The Lilting House writes a post about Charlotte Mason who was from a more recent era, the Victorian Era.


Wood (year 5)

Wood is a fundamental building material for construction. Tami reviews her building plans in A New Year.

Stages are often made of wood. Cinnamon from Nose in a Book reports on an outing to a performance with A little mime, a little Mendelssohn and ponders that if she feels something is important for her children, she should also be involved.

Kris of Kris’ Eclectic Homeschool shares some thoughts on 5 years of homeschooling in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (well, not really!).












Iron (year 6)

From Consent Of The Governend Judy Aron writes about a young girl with an iron will who as an unschooler was accepted to Princeton.

Does it take an iron will to handle the "they say" ers? Kristina of at home, on fire writes about her experience with people “who live and breathe just to make judgments on anyone who doesn’t stir their tea just the way “they say” you should in Are we really doing our best by them?

From Trinity Prep School Maureen writes about a Great Books Discussion: The Iliad. The Iliad took place during the Iron Age.


Wool (year 7)

In case you were gathering wool during math class, Denise of Let’s play math! has written a poem to help students do fraction division.


Bronze (year 8)

The Bronze Age was largely influenced by the new technology of being able to make items out of bronze. Christina of Routon Family Homeschool explores The Changing Workplace and how in the workforce people are finding better ways to work, yet insist children must continue to attend a traditional school class.

Stonehenge was created in the early Bronze Age. From Progressive Homeschool Nika found a wonderful way to teach her children about Stonehenge in Happy Winter Solstice! May you have light.














Copper (year 9)

Many cooking pots and pans are made of cooper. Ali’s husband gave a gift in organizing the kitchen. From my God given mission field in Looking back on the year Ali determines to be less lazy and more organized.

There is an old wives tale about being able to get rid of warts by someone saying a prayer over you and rubbing your warts with pennies. From The Open Door Laura shares how she and her son, Christian learned that you can actually get rid of wart with duct tape in The Strangest Thing We Studied This Year.


Aluminum or Tin (year 10)

At Trivium Pursuit the Bluedorns write about their Very First Podcast. I wonder how much tin was involved in the equipment.

Jet planes are made of Aluminum alloy. In Dads – Part 7, from her series on Dads and homeschooling Janine writes about leaving on a jet plane for a trip away.


Steel (year 11)

Hundreds of pounds of steel go into each car. In Teaching Real Life Candi writes about how her son and husband designed a car to run on coffee at Homekeeper at Heart.

Isaiash5413 read a book recently which nailed her. The book helped her to step back and realize she can have Peace for 2007.


Silk (year 12)

A Chinese proverb says “With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.” From 7ValleysHomeschool Nikki reminds us in Re-Evaluating your homeschool that re-evaluating our time and what we are doing is very important for our children.

Parental guidance takes a soft touch. At Life Without School Stephanie writes on parenting in Who’s in Charge?











Lace (year 13)

Making lace is an intricate process. So, is choosing and using a curriculum. At The Upward Call Kim points out that we need to avoid depending on others as we make decisions regarding homeschooling in Follow which leader?


Ivory (year 14)

Music is important to many homeschoolers. Many children start off with the piano. Tickle the ivories is a common expression for playing the piano. At Gray’s Academy Cher Mere explores how homeschooling allows her daughter to be an individual.

People speak of those in an Ivory Tower as teachers who delve so much into abstract thought that they become divorced from reality. Sheri from Classical Education writes on a latest “improvement” in education from California in What Are the 3 R’s Again?


Crystal (year 15)

Often gifts of crystal have to do with glasses. Mark and Cyndy Weiss of Trust The Children address the question of if the glass is half full or half empty. In The Total Package encourage parents to recognize that the glass may be more than half full when considering a husband’s contribution in a true light.

A crystal lens can widen our view of the world. Twice Bloomed Wisteria writes about importance of the inclusion of multicultural resources in a classical education and provides ideas and resources for implementation in A Broader View.

Often time and distance can help make things crystal clear. The Head Mistress of The Common Room writes about her Favorite Read This Morning in which she realized a truth about herself.


Turquoise (year 17)

At All Info About Home Schooling Patti Miller shares her experience on Homeschool Record Keeping. (We couldn’t find anything to match Turquoise, and we couldn’t find an anniversary gift to match record keeping, so this post fills in the gap.)


China (year 20)

Trust is fragile, like fine china. Trust is an important part of rapport. From Families.com Homeschool Blog Andrea Hermitt writes about the Vocabulary Word of the Day: Rapport (ruh-poor) and the importance of trust.














Silver (year 25)

A traditional 25th anniversary gift is a mirror. Bruggie Tales reflects on their homeschool style Structured Classical Unschooling.

Another traditional 25th anniversary gift is silver candlesticks. Minnesota Mom likes to wind down by lighting a candle and playing some relaxing music.... but her children find their Inspiration in different ways.

In many cultures money has often been made of metals like silver. The Imperfect Homeschooler writes on the importance of Teaching Our Children About Financial Freedom and how to teach children to handle money wisely.


Coral (year 35)

There are different kinds of coral reefs. Each reef has a slightly different structure. Finding your structure is an important part of homeschooling. At Crafty Mama’s Homeschool Charity writes about Homeschooling in the New Year and reevaluation of their homeschooling method.















Ruby (year 40)

From the Mother-Lode Kim Anderson recommends a book about a treasure hunt to celebrate Christmas in Trumpet Stars and Wise Men.

“Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer had a very shinny nose…” Down at Texas Ed are some profound thoughts on Rudolph and the Road not Taken.

From The Scratching Post is a cool description of building a DIY Rock Tumbler, used to polish gems.


Pearl (year 30)

In Homeschool Resolutions Mother Crone’s Homeschool has a good reminder that we need to reevaluate our homeschool plans. Get rid of what's not working and keep the pearls.


Gold (year 50)

My wife and I are coming up on our 15th anniversary. Fifty years is longer than we’ve been alive. The traditional gift is Gold. Gold is very valuable. Carmon of Buried Treasure reminds of us of something even more precious in her review of R.C. Sproul, Jr.'s book "When You Rise Up: A Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling"

Over at the Rosetta Stone Michelle writes about a golden moment in Do you have a MOOS-stash? She writes about the dangers of memorizing poetry.


Diamond (year 60)

Often homeschoolers get hit with the Socialization question. Alasandra notices that lately homeschoolers are getting hit on Another S Word. Are homeschoolers really selfish? Or are they just guarding the family jewels?


Platinum Jubilee (year 70)

Do you know what a Platinum Jubilee is? I didn’t. Maureen Wittmann prepared a quiz for her readers to see how well they know her in her first Anniversary Edition.


Oak (year 80)

For nature study, get out under the old oak tree and watch the birds. By Sun and Candlelight has suggestions on watching Winter Birds and shares their experience.


Conclusion:

There you have it, the first anniversary edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling. If you have enjoyed this carnival, please spread the word. Please mention the carnival on your blog, and other appropriate places.

Go here for the archives of previous carnivals.

Next week the carnival will be held at HomeSchoolBuzz.

If you are interested in submitting a post for a future carnival, click here for information.

We'd like to thank everyone who has helped out. Thank you to all the participants in this carnival. And thanks to all those who help promote the Carnival of Homeschooling.


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

Responsibility for the education of children

Today, Henry and I are getting ready to mail our annual Christmas letter. Yes, we realize we are a bit late this year. We really struggled with what to say about our blogging efforts.

At first, we had a line that said something diplomatic like "The purpose of our blog is to encourage parents to be more involved with their children's education."

That sounded so wishy-washy that we then changed it to, "The purpose of our blog is to encourage parents to take responsibility for their children's education."

This phrase bothered me. Parents are responsible for their children's education, no matter what they do. Whether parents delegate their duty to public or private schools, choose to homeschool, hire tutors, use distance learning programs or a combination of all of the above, ultimately the parents are responsible for the well being of their minor children.

I just hate it when parents complain about their children's school, yet do nothing about it. Or worse, the parents pretend they are the victims when it is discovered that their children never mastered elementary reading and math skills. Children are dependent upon their parents to look out for them. If the parents themselves act like dependent children, what hope have the children for protection.

So, we changed it to, "The purpose of our blog is to remind parents that they are responsible for their children's education."

Henry felt that might be too provocative for many of our friends and relatives. It also left out any reference to the responsibility of the child to develop his talents. In the end, we settled with something factual but bland. "We discuss homeschool related issues on our blog."

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!



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Related Tags: Christmas newsletter, parental responsibility, public school, homeschool, distance learning, private school, blogging

Beautiful pictures from APOD

Since I started asking my youngest daughter for comments on pictures from the Astronomy Picture of the Day web site, we have had some good discussions about space.

I explained a little about the Emission Nebula in Orion and she said there were little rainbows on the side of the nebula.

The Witch Head Nebula gave us a bit of trouble. I saw a head facing left, using the whole nebula. My youngest saw a upside down witch, also facing left, but only using the bottom half of the nebula.

In looking at the NGC 1055 and M77 galaxies, my daughter thought the one on the top left looked like a shield.

Frequently when we are out at night my second daughter likes to find Orion's belt. My youngest daughter thought the Path To Orion looked more like an arrow, than rocket exhaust.

While explaining the picture of Massive Stars in Open Cluster Pismis 24 my daughter wanted to know how scientists decided that a star was 200 times more massive than our sun. We had a short chat about how it would be hard to put a star on a scale or measure it with a measuring tape. She thought it was funny that a scale or tape would burn up.

My daughter wasn't impressed with Star Forming Region NGC 6357. But from there we checked out the Cat's Paw Nebula, and she thought that picture was cool.

To my daughter the exhaust from a Minotaur rocket in Minotaur Dawn looked more like a crack in the sky. My daughter explained that it was like the light was peaking through the picture.

The Moon Over Andromeda is the most striking picture of this set. My daughter wanted to know who lived in the Andromeda galaxy. I said we don't know. She said we should shot a rocket there. I tried to explain that the distances were too great for us to travel right now.


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Technorati tags: Astronomy, Astronomy Picture of the day

How to mark a book by Mortimer J. Adler

Maureen Wittman found an article by Mortimer J. Adler on How to Mark a Book. I greatly enjoyed his How to Read a Book. If you haven't read How to Read a Book, I strongly encourage you to check it out.


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Technorati tags: read, reading, book, Mortimer J. Adler, Adler

The Carnival of Education, and the shortest Carnival ever?

Darren of Right on the Left Coast hosted this week's Carnival of Education.

Michael Hardt of Family School hosted this week's Carnival of Kid Comedy, which only had one entry.


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Technorati tags: education, school, teaching, children, family, humor

Exchanging houses

There was a question on theThe Well-Trained Mind's K-8 General Board on Home Exchanging for vacations. I replied there, but then decided to also post the reply on our blog.

I've been able to arrange with my managers over the last couple years a program of working remotely about one month a year. I'll work remotely around twenty hours a week for a month and thus only have to use up two weeks of vacation. It is a bit stressful for me, but Janine and our daughters end up having a month long vacation in some fun place.

We've done a couple variations of exchanging houses:
1) One year we found some friends who were getting major reconstruction done on their house. We rented our house to them. We then found a furnished apartment in another city.

2) Another time we were able to connect with the brother of a good friend of ours. He wanted to bring his family to our part of California, so we exchanged houses.

3) In 2005 we just left our house empty and went back East. In 2006 we went back to Washington D.C.

We are starting to set something up for spring of 2007. I've found that it doesn't make sense to start arranging things too far into the future.

Our dream is to spend a month in England. We don't have anything looking promising in England for our next trip, but it does look like we might be able to go to Europe. We have some friends from Holland who think they may be able to find a family to switch houses with us. Another friend is from Sweden and she thinks there is a good chance we may be able to exchange houses with some friends of hers.

There are some organizations which will arrange house exchanges. We've been reluctant to do this. We feel more comfortable in renting to friends, or trading with people who are friends or family of people we know and trust.

We have found that spending a month in a place really gives you a better feel for a city, and it is more relaxing. When we spend a couple days or a week visiting a new city there is always a sense of urgency. We are always trying to cram in everything. With a month you can take it easy. We will even have days when we don't do anything touristy.

If you can arrange it, exchanging your house can be a lot of fun.

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Technorati tags: home, exchange

Request for submissions for the first Anniversary edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling

I apologize for any confusion from my previous post.

There will be a Carnival of Homeschooling next week. It will be the first year anniversary. In some ways it is hard to believe that the carnival has been going for almost a full year.

Please consider submitting a post about homeschooling.

As always submissions are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM PST. Here are the instructions.


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

The last Carnival of Homeschooling this year

Rebecca of What Did You Do in School Today? is hosting the last Carnival of Homeschooling. She is using a theme of A Year and a Day. Drop in and enjoy what others are saying about homeschooling as the year draws to a close.

This week's Carnival of Family Life is at Career and Kids.


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education, Carnival of Homeschooling, learning, school, students, family, parenting, student

Horses, Lawyers, and Perry Mason

Horses

All three of our daughters are horse crazy. They constantly talk about and dream about horses. They have dozens of toy horses. For Christmas they wanted more toy horses. (They also wanted real horses, but we’ve explained that we can’t have horses right now since we live in a suburban area.) Our daughters often play with their toy horses. They also like Herd Your Horses and Horse-opoly. They read about horses and can talk extensively about different breeds.

My girls come by this interest naturally. My grandparents had a horse ranch for about thirty years. As a child, I was excited to watch baby horses born. One year they had eleven foals. That weaning day was a loud and noisy day. The foals ran all over the place and constantly whinnied for their mothers.


Lawyers

Several months ago my oldest was wishing for a horse. I told her that horses cost a lot of money. One of my brothers recently got a sailboat. He said sailboats are holes in the water you throw money in. I explained to my daughter that likewise horses are holes you throw lots of money in. I told her when she got older that if she had money she could buy and keep her own horses. She said that maybe she would like to be a lawyer. She knew lawyers can make a lot of money.

We have some good friends who use to live a block away. A couple years back they moved to a nearby city. The husband is a patent attorney. We decided to have them come join us for dinner, partly with the intension that our oldest daughter would interview the father about what it was like to be a lawyer, and how to prepare. After dinner my oldest asked questions and listened for a half hour. She learned a little about the law profession. She was still kind of interested.


Perry Mason

A couple weeks back one of the local television stations started showing Perry Mason. I have enjoyed watching them with my oldest two girls. The six year old finds them boring.

In preparing for this post I asked the older two girls what they liked and learned from watching Perry Mason. My oldest said:

1) She learned how formal court rooms are
2) She learned that law was kind of interesting
3) She liked the kinds of dresses women wore fifty years ago
4) She was surprised that there were planes fifty years ago. (I guess we’ll have to work on timelines again.)
5) She thought the phones were “like kind of weird.” I also had to explain why they had to talk with an operator to make a phone call.

She finds Perry Mason entertaining, and likes that it isn’t bloody. There is usually a murder, but it is not graphically shown.

My second daughter said she also learned:

1) That it is often best to call the police right away. Often Perry Mason’s clients get into trouble because they don’t go straight to the police, but try to cover something up.
2) She also pointed out that you can’t jump to conclusions. The obvious suspect is rarely the person who did it.

I’m glad we’ve had a chance to watch an old television show. It has been both fun and educational. This is one of the ways children can learn a lot about the world. We have had many discussions. The setting for each show is different. We've learned about shady land deals, inheritance, and so on.

If you have a chance, give Perry Mason a chance.


Now if any of my daughters become lawyers I’ll have to be careful about telling lawyer jokes, like:

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God decided to take the devil to court and settle their differences once and for all.

When Satan heard this, he laughed and said, "And where do you think you're going to find a lawyer?"

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Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, an honest lawyer and an old drunk are walking down the street together when they simultaneously spot a hundred dollar bill. Who gets it? The old drunk, of course, the other three are mythological creatures.

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Q: How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Fifty four. Eight to argue, one to get a continuance, one to object, one to demur, two to research precedents, one to dictate a letter, one to stipulate, five to turn in their time cards, one to depose, one to write interrogatories, two to settle, one to order a secretary to change the bulb, and twenty-eight to bill for professional services

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A lawyer and a pope died on the same day, and both went to heaven. When the pope noticed that the lawyer had a larger mansion, he questioned Saint Peter about the allocation of rewards. The justification was "Well, we've had 265 popes up here, but this is the FIRST lawyer!"
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Three professionals were discussing the nature of God. The doctor said, "The Bible states that God made Woman by taking a rib out of Man; God is obviously a surgeon." The engineer replied, "But before God made man he created Heaven and Earth out of Chaos; this is obviously the work of a master engineer. The lawyer just smiled and said, "But who do you think created the chaos?"

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A Hindu, a rabbi, and a lawyer are traveling together and need to stop for the night. So they stop at the next farmhouse, and find lodging, with the qualification that the house is only big enough for two of them, and one will have to sleep in the barn. So the Hindu volunteers and goes out to sleep in the barn while the lawyer and rabbi sleep in the house.

A few minutes later, however, the lawyer and rabbi hear a knock on the door, and opening it, find the Hindu who protests "There is a cow in the barn. Surely you can't expect me to sleep with cattle." So the rabbi and the lawyer agree that perhaps the rabbi should trade places with the Hindu, and the rabbi goes out.

Within a short time, the Hindu and the lawyer are getting ready to go to sleep, when again there is a knock on the door. Opening the door they find the rabbi protesting, "There is a pig in the barn. Surely you can't expect me to sleep with a pig!"

Weary of the whole problem by this time, the lawyer pulls the rabbi into the house, grabs a blanket and heads for the barn. Almost immediately, there is a third knocking at the door, and opening the door they find the pig and the cow.
"Surely you can't expect us to sleep with a lawyer."

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A very rich man, who was very close to his money, got together with his closest friends one day, who happened to be a Priest, a Doctor, and a Lawyer (or course.)

The Rich Man was very old, and getting older, and was thinking about his approaching death. He told his three friends this, and asked them to do a favor for him when he died.

"Here are three envelopes, each contain $100,000, one for each of you. I don't wish to go to the afterlife without my money. Please, when I am buried, would each of you throw your envelopes into the grave on top of my coffin?"

The three friends agreed, and took the envelopes.

Sure enough (of course) the Rich Man died. At his funeral, the Doctor, the Priest and the Lawyer threw their envelopes on his coffin.

As they were leaving the funeral, the Priest said to the others, "I have a confession to make. The church needed a new altar badly, so I . . . I took $5000 to buy it," and looked at his feet.

The Doctor said, "Well, since you've admitted it, I too must confess that I took money. The children's hospital where I work needed a new, expensive X-ray machine, so I took $30,000 to buy it."

The Doctor and the Priest both turned to the lawyer, expecting a similar confession. Instead, he said "Oh, now, I didn't take any of the money. There was a check for all $100,000 in the envelope!"


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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education, horse, lawyer, Perry Mason, laywer jokes

We wish you a Merry Christmas

To all who celebrate Christmas: We wish you a Merry Christmas.

We wish everyone the best in this Holiday season, and hope you all have a wonderful New Year.

The Cates

The Carnival of Education, week 98, is up

I'm a bit slow in mentioning this. The Carnival of Education this week is being hosted by The Median Sib.


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Technorati tags: education, learning, school, students, student

In all the hustle and bustle of the season

This time of year tends to be hectic. There is lots going on. People are buyings gifts, traveling, and spending time with family.

This post is just your friendly weekly reminder: Don't forget to send in your submission to the next Carnival of Homeschooling!

Rebecca of What Did You Do in School Today? will be hosting the carnival next week.


As with tradition, the submissions are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM PST. Here are the instructions.


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

One of those moments

I enjoy the comic strip Baby Blues. Today's struck home.

Our daughters are turning out to be decent human beings. Like Darryl MacPherson I'm not always sure exactly what I'm doing right.


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Technorati tags: parenting parents children family families