HS Comments on the Fly

I mentioned back on January 3 of this year that Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, and his wife, are homeschooling their daughter.

Because of Wikipedia’s bias, a group of homeschoolers headed by Andy Schlafly started Conservapedia last November.

… creating a conservative-minded online encyclopedia for students was Schlafly’s prime motivation for launching Conservapedia. He started the site in late November 2006 in conjunction with 58 high-school-level, home-schooled students from the New Jersey area.

So homeschoolers are involved in both *-pedias — just a bit of trivia for you.

But to continue on a bit … Schlafly (Phyllis’s son) critiques Wikipedia harshly. He almost sounds biased himself.

… [Wikipedia] is rife with so much gossip, vulgarity and long-winded writing that it has become unusable as an educational resource.

What? I heartily disagree! While I would say that Wikipedia shouldn’t be your last stop on the road to knowledge, I do think that it’s a reasonable first stop.

Do go read the article. The article contains a few of Conservapedia’s entries and mentions that it’s become a target for those who enjoy mockery.

I’m sure you’ve already heard the big news.

Yes, Senegalese chimps are sharpening sticks with their teeth and then hunting bush babies and eating them.

I think this is the funniest article about it. Best sentence:

I saw “Planet of the Apes” and know where this is going.

Another, more serious article tells us that human beings and chimpanzees share 98% of their DNA. Most baffling sentence:

Chimps are known to use tools to crack open nuts and fish for termites.

Sure, I know that most people wouldn’t find it befuddling, but I did the first time I read it. After reading it, I thought, “But there aren’t any termites in fish.”

I would have understood it more easily if it read:

Chimps are known to use tools to crack open nuts and to fish for termites.

Or maybe I just needed labels over the nouns and verbs in the sentence like all good grammar textbooks provide.

Don’t miss the article from the Scotsman which tells us that the female chimp’s name was Tumbo. Snidest comment after the article:

So what were saying here is females can be cold blooded killers when they want to be……….what a Revelation

Ha.

The National Geographic article has links to video footage showing the hunting chimp. This article probably gives the most details. You know, stuff like:

The tools, on average, are about 24 inches (60 centimeters) long and 0.4 inch (11 millimeters) around.

The researchers refer to the tools as spears. Pruetz said they differ from throwing spears, in the sense that they are jabbed into tree trunks and branches, not tossed.

As for animals using tools, let’s not forget the shrikes! They are like the noisiest birds — at least the ones around here are. They have a good use for barbed wire.

[Shrikes] feed mostly on larger insects, like grasshoppers, but also small vertebrates such as mice and lizards. Some species impale their prey on thorns or barbed wire for later retrieval. Their rapaciousness is legendary.

And cows! Even cows use tools to groom themselves.

He found they spend about 3% of their day grooming and preening themselves….

They mainly use their tongues and hind hooves to groom the rear end of their bodies, Kilgour says.

But they also use inanimate objects like trees, branches, fence posts and stumps to get at areas they can’t reach, he says.

“They’ll walk up to fallen tree limbs which have protruding branches and groom around their eyes,” he says.

So, there ya’ go.

Kiplinger’s provides some information on the financial side of homeschooling.

Page 1 and Page 2

Well, here are a few posts of interest to homeschoolers. They are comments made by college instructors about some homeschool students they’re dealing with, plus replies. It makes for interesting reading, possibly instructive … or not.

Tammy in Topeka Is Tired of T. [Who Was Homeschooled]

response for Tammy — How to School the Homeschooler

Homeschooled or Unschooled?

We Hear From Some of the Homeschooled

This is what I’m seeing as today’s homeschool news.

(Format: Article title, followed by short excerpt with some homeschooling info included.)

Libraries slated to close in Oregon
Applegate resident Chris Shockey, who homeschools his family, said he checked out 1,176 items from the library last year. He estimated that without libraries, it would cost $7,000 to homeschool a family.

Christian Fascism: The Jesus Gestapo of St. Orwell (book review)
Millions of children in America are being home-schooled, and 75% of them are children from fundamentalist Christian homes. Home-schooling can offer an extraordinary alternative to attending public school, but for fundamentalist Christians, it serves, among other things, to shield their children not only from grappling with such issues as evolution and global warming, but learning the scientific method itself and the basic principles of critical thinking and logical analysis.

Dozier: American history subject of DAR’s essay contest
The contestant winners are … Nathaniel Stine of DeWitt, homeschool, 10th grade.

Authorities ask help in finding missing boy
A 9-year-old Longview [Washington] boy has been missing since before 8 a.m. Wednesday…. Michael D. Dalgardno was reported as a runaway by his parents around noon on Wednesday after they checked places where they thought he might go. He is homeschooled.

In all fairness, we have never been pure unschoolers. And it’s probably about time that unschooling get a new definition because too few want to research out its meaning. They just think, “Un means not,” and head off from there.

You know, some might say that they’d never want an unschooler to work beside them on a project at their place of employment because unschoolers have been taught to think that life is all about doing whatever you want whenever you want.

But work and learning are different.

Work is one thing. Learning is another.

My children have been given a number of educational choices. They don’t ever have to learn about the Battle of the Boyne as far as I’m concerned. I don’t think we ever touched upon Edith Wharton, Sappho, Eugene O’Neill, Nasser, or Huey Long. I don’t think either of them will take a high school biology class. C’mon, how often do you use info from your high school biology class? You need to know physics and chemistry much more to get along in the world, imo. And no I don’t feel like debating that. I took Honors Biology in high school, and it was a complete and utter waste of my time, just like it’s a waste of most other kids’ lives. My students made many of their own educational choices.

But when it came to certain types of things that needed to be done, we all pitched in. I’m talking about things usually considered work — namely washing dishes, mowing the lawn, care and feeding the animals, vacuuming, taking out the trash, washing down the cupboards, etc., changing the oil in the car/truck, dusting, laundry, chopping wood, etc. That’s work. It must be done.

Why would anyone try to equate work with learning? One is fun and one is … well, work … sometimes fun … but still work.

Additionally, being employed and being paid for work is different from learning (unschooling). An employer is paying you to do your job; you’re earning money which is a benefit. If you’re learning in a classroom environment in grades 1-12, you are “earning” your grades (A, B, C, D, F). Not quite the same inducement to get your school work done, but that’s your reward at a school. Tough luck.

If you are unschooled, you are rewarded with learning. You get to find out something. You enjoy your time spent learning, usually. You experience the joy in learning because it’s not being forced on you. Unschooling isn’t about teaching your children to be little immature brats for the rest of their lives, never knowing what responsibility is all about. To call it that shows a distinct lack of understanding. Sure parents can raise selfish little brats who only want to do “their own thing,” but that’s a whole other issue.

Gail Kerr says:

It seems to me, on these cold winter mornings when the wind blows sharp and Jack Frost bites that the logical next step of the “unschooling” trend should be “unworking.”

Logical? I don’t think logic has anything to do with it — whether it be formal, informal, or symbolic. Let’s just hope Gail’s just a big kidder because her complete article has a bit of a sting to it.

On January 24, 2007, FatcatPaulanne over at Home*School*Home wrote:

I’m thinking of adding a reason I am glad we’re homeschooling to the bottom of each post or maybe once a week.

And she’s been doing just that over the past few days. Go on over and read some of her reasons.

Cute idea, huh? Well, I’m going to add a “Category” like that which I will sometimes use.

As of right now, these are some of the homeschool headlines. The text underneath each headline is an excerpt from the article highlighting the homeschooling content.

• Public Education: Reform — or Revolution?

Private schools and home-schooling exist because the public schools are failing in their delivery of educational services. There is neither equality nor excellence.

• 60s Leader Seeks Change

Numerous Cornell students, both undergraduates and graduates, took to the microphones to voice their concerns about the state of education in America. For instance, Kendra Chatburn ’10 discussed her experience being homeschooled and encouraged those in the audience to “have the confidence to take our education into our own hands.”

• Give me a child until …

In Public Schools: Enforced Social Conversion & Parental Denial, tireless education and home schooling advocate, Nancy Levant, states, “Children all over the world are being converted to social compliancy and servitude. ….. No parent in the United States has any excuse, whatsoever, for ignoring the political-corporate take-over and manipulation of knowledge and learning.”

• Rise and rise of autism is a riddle the experts can’t crack

Our son, has Asperger’s Syndrome…. Nothing can possibly be better at developing a child’s understanding of the real world than living in it, which is what home education offers. All the evidence from research also shows that home educating, which is not about school at home in any way but child-driven learning, beats school on every measure, whether academic, social or building a confident and free-thinking adult.

• Mother pulls son from Leaf Rapids school over lack of resources

Rosemarie Grusska is now home-schooling her son, who was in the Grade 7. He could not learn in class at the Leaf Rapids Education Centre while teachers were busy dealing with too many problem students, she said Monday.

Two generous and thoughtful Penn State alumnists have pledged $100,000 to a scholarship that will be awarded to eligible students, with homeschooled students receiving first shot at it.

The George R. and Ann E. Kemp Scholarship in the College of Agricultural Sciences will support academically promising undergraduates, with first preference given to students College-wide who were home-schooled. If none are eligible, preference will be given to students in the School of Forest Resources….

“Families who home-school are often at a financial disadvantage,” George Kemp said, “for they sacrifice one parent’s income in order to accomplish their desired educational goals for their children.”

Robert D. Steele, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences, said, “We are excited about the Kemps foresight in creating this scholarship. This is the first scholarship at Penn State focused on this particular group, and we are hopeful that it will help us increase the enrollment of home-schooled students in our College.”

Isn’t this great news?! You can read more about George and Ann Kemp, their backgrounds, and the scholarship online at the Penn State Live site.

In case you know a homeschooled student who may be interested, here’s the link to the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences.

Should I take a road trip using this map?

Well, I don’t think I will because it’s a little impractical since this is the new shower curtain in the guest room bathroom. Oh, I know you’re wonder why I buy such junk for the guest room … well, it’s because I ran out of money after buying the new sheets, blankets, and fluffy gi-normous towels. So while the shower curtain is cheap, at least it’s soap scum free.

But that map. How funny. Yeah, I’m always thinking, “Here I am in Sacramento, California. I’m thinking I’ll take a trip down to New York, New York.” That’s lucid.

I think the only thing correct on that map is that I-80 actually does connect Sacramento with New York. Chicago being located northwest of Des Moines (uncapitalized, btw)??? Yeah, something is definitely rotten in the state of Denmark.

So, geography. How to learn it? They say that most people are geographically illiterate. I’m not sure we’re properly filled with geographical genius, but I’ll share some of what we’ve done over the years in our homeschool - the stuff I can remember.

1. We’ve had maps, historical and current, on placemats and/or covered with contact paper and affixed to the tabletop.

2. Maps on the wall. Even in the living room.

3. A large framed map that can lean against the armoire during school hours. Two-sided, with the world on one side and the U.S. on the other.

4. A globe on a stand in the living room - great for spinning around and seeing where your finger lands. We’ve also had two different inflatable globes which means we can throw it around and not risk hurting each other or the furniture … too much.

5. When reading aloud, which we have done just about every day, we used one of the laser pointers to point out the places mentioned in the book. Examples: Around the World in 80 Days - we had a piece of posterboard tacked to the wall that listed all the locations visited and then we would use our laser pointer to point to each location as the other read the list and checked to make sure that the pointer was correctly placed. We also did this with Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (who went from the East Coast of the U.S. to Europe, around Africa and over to the Orient somewhere - I can’t remember where because it was probably 8 - 10 years ago) and also He Went With Vasco Da Gama. This method would work with any book with traveling characters, whether it be about Lewis & Clark, Marco Polo, Captain Cook, Henry Morgan, Mozart, Cyrus the Great, Hannibal, Richard the Lionhearted.

6. Make a salt dough map. Each of the kids did Mexico when we were reading one of Henty’s books. It was the one about Moctezuma. I do not recommend it for history class, though Hentys are fine for pleasure reading.

7. We draw on maps. Once when reading about the transcontinental railroad, the kids drew a train, tracks, and a golden spike. They placed the tracks on the map as we read through the book and the tracks met in northern Utah. Then they put the stake on the map. We kept the map up on the wall for a few more months.

8. Map puzzles. I bought 2 U.S. puzzles to facilitate races. We also have at least one world map.

9. Once before a road trip, I bought each child a AAA road atlas and a few highlighters so that they could trace our trip in the atlas. The road atlases were saved for following trips. They did lose interest in a year or two, but it was great fun while they enjoyed it.

10. We have traced the routes of the Amazing Race. I still enjoy looking up all the places in an atlas. It’s easier to do if you tape it and then do the map work the second time you watch it.

11. We use historical atlases. We have probably 6 or 7 of these. You can buy historical atlases for different areas of the world. It’s sometimes shocking to see how areas change over the decades or centuries. The names of countries and seas change, too, which baffles my mind at times. Like the Caspian Sea being previously called the Sea of Hyrcania, which we had to figure out on our own because the book we were reading didn’t give much of a clue where that sea was. It was a mystery. BookCloseOuts.com used to have some great deals on historical atlases.

12. We have used computer programs. We had a program from Torpedo Software that we used to use a lot. We bought it back before there was a Windows version of it - that old! We also used World Discovery Deluxe from Great Wave Software. I don’t think either are available anymore. We still use our GeoSafari LapTop now and then. It’s a bit fun. And it does help to learn all the capitals in Africa, etc. Some may wonder why that’s important - well, maybe it’s not important. I just want to be able to discuss stuff with my children. If I say, “Khartoum,” I want them to know that I’m talking about the Sudan or at least have a nebulous idea that it’s in the Sahara. I know at least one of my students is familiar with the Sahel. Maybe no so important to the average U.S. citizen, but still information that may come in handy someday.

Other ideas that could possibly be fun:

1. Take a world map to the zoo and mark where the flamingos, rhinos, camels, etc., are from. Usually the zoo has that info on the little sign next to each exhibit. I think this would only be fun if you go to the zoo once a month and you only dig out the map once in a while. But it depends on your students.

2. Stamp collection. I had one of these as a child and often looked up the places. You get stamps from around the world by buying them in cheap, large lots. You don’t have to have a pen pal to get stamps from all over the world.

3. Travel. Read a book about an event, say, the London Fire of 1666 and then visit Pudding Lane and climb all 311 steps of the Monument which commemorates the rebuilding of the City after the fire. Actual travel is probably the absolute best way to learn geography, although it’s probably not practical to expect to be able to visit more than a couple of hands full (how in the world do you write that?) of countries during your students’ school years.

Regrets: I was a little too “don’t mess that up” with our two big world atlases. They both sat in the living room, but I didn’t allow free access. I should have. Who cares if it gets ruined as long as it is used? We can buy/find another. That should have been my attitude from the beginning. Now, it’s too late; my students are no longer six years old and forming their habits. We had lots of little atlases, though, that they had access to through their early years. But if I had it to do over again, I’d probably get us all our own atlas and encourage treating them like atlases instead of crystal.

Well, the last of the three-part series by Charles Murray came out yesterday. I’ve only just read it. I grudgingly link to it. I guess I think he’s got a limited view of things. Yeah, who am I to give such an opinion, me with the IQ lower than his, clearly.

“Gifted” — just how is he defining it? It seems, according to Murray, that anyone with an IQ higher than 120 is “intellectually gifted.”

But IQ alone seems like such a pathetic way to gauge “giftedness.” What about common sense? I wish there was a test that would give us a common sense rating. Now, that would be helpful. And please remember that I make no claims of high IQ or CSQ (common sense quotient).

Murray writes:

We live in an age when it is unfashionable to talk about the special responsibility of being gifted, because to do so acknowledges inequality of ability, which is elitist, and inequality of responsibilities, which is also elitist. And so children who know they are smarter than the other kids tend, in a most human reaction, to think of themselves as superior to them. Because giftedness is not to be talked about, no one tells high-IQ children explicitly, forcefully and repeatedly that their intellectual talent is a gift. That they are not superior human beings, but lucky ones. That the gift brings with it obligations to be worthy of it. That among those obligations, the most important and most difficult is to aim not just at academic accomplishment, but at wisdom…. It is not enough that gifted children learn to be nice. They must know what it means to be good.

What’s nice about homeschooling is that we can (if we want to) teach all of our kids, “gifted” or not, that they should be wise and good. Why does Murray believe that the “gifted” need that information more than anyone else?

I don’t know … I guess that I just think that those with what IQ tests claim is “average intelligence” shouldn’t be ignored. I think we should be allowed to join the discussion of wisdom and goodness if it appeals to us.

Look. Doesn’t this apply to all of us?

The gifted must assimilate the details of grammar and syntax and the details of logical fallacies not because they will need them to communicate in daily life, but because these are indispensable for precise thinking at an advanced level.

Why doesn’t Murray include the “average” folk? You’d think that the “average” would need this information more than the “gifted” since we’d be more prone to being duped by the arguments of the “gifted.” Right?

Okay, so I suspect I’m missing the point. That’s usually the case with me. I don’t get the point until it jumps up and bites me on the nose, but I’ll keep blathering on anyway.

Murray states:

I am calling for a revival of the classical definition of a liberal education, serving its classic purpose: to prepare an elite to do its duty.

To go along with this, I will recommend the reading of Norms and Nobility (my review) by Hicks. But I don’t think “duty” is just for the elite. And I’m struggling to figure out why Murray doesn’t think the average should have their share in a liberal education. Does Murray think that only the elite have a duty and that the average don’t need a duty because they will be serving the elite? That’s a scary thought, but probably way off base.

Murray ends with a few directives, which I will take personally. I’ve inserted the enumeration.

1. “The aim here is not to complete an argument but to begin a discussion….” Check, already been discussing this for years here in this homeschool.

2. “Accept that some children will be left behind other children because of intellectual limitations,” No, not “left behind.” They will take other enjoyable and challenging paths.

3. “and think about what kind of education will give them the greatest chance for a fulfilling life nonetheless.” Check.

4. “Stop telling children that they need to go to college to be successful,” Check, started this years ago and continue to this day, though will not rule out university if students request it.

5. “and take advantage of the other, often better ways in which people can develop their talents.” Check.

6. “Acknowledge the existence and importance of high intellectual ability, and think about how best to nurture the children who possess it.” Nope, we’re all average here and don’t plan on taking any tests to prove otherwise.

Thank you, Charles Murray, for your series.

Since Homeschooler Amy Inside the Foil Hat admitted that she watched American Idol* the other night, I will, too. If we watch it, we watch a few of the early episodes that are held in the outlying cities. Once the contestants go to “Hollywood, Baby,” we lose interest. If there weren’t so many reruns on TV, we’d never watch American Idol.

Anyway, my point: American Idol Proves a College Degree Is Worthless.

There was a lady who sang poorly according to … that guy … I forget his name .. Simon … I don’t know how to spell his last name, but it’s something like Cowell. Simon Cowell. So he tells her she’s out of the competition because she sings poorly, and she quizzes him on how she can do better, etc. She says something like, “But I went to college and I’ve got a degree in ‘Vocal Performance.’”

Well, all I can say is that university can be a big rip off. They’re going to take your money, give you voice lessons, tell you that you’re good, so that you keep paying. Then they’ll graduate you even if you’re only marginally talented. University is too often all about taking the money and handing out a meaningless piece of paper. This lady was proof. A sad tale of woe.

I’m not sure I trust our country’s educational system any more. It’s not totally useless, not even close. But why has a “year of college” come to be more like “six months of instruction.” Do the numbers. I did. It really is only six months.

Harvard University Academic Calendar (chosen at random)

Jan 31, First day of classes for spring semester

1 week off in March for spring break

May 4, Last day of the semester

May 5 - 16, Reading Period (time to catch up on studies, papers, and reading)

May 17, Finals

So, that looks like February, March (most of it), and April for classes/instruction. That’s three months. It’s the same for fall semester. Three months each … that equals six months. That’s what we call a “year of college” these days. And it’s not just Harvard that’s like that. There are other colleges that believe that six months equals one year.

I don’t really know what to think of that. Sure, some jobs require a college degree, but some don’t … and some shouldn’t. Are we getting our money’s worth when we attend university? Did that American Idol contestant get her money’s worth? No, regardless of how long her “college year” was. The only person willing to tell her the truth, it seems, was Simon Cowell.

So, now I’ll take a deep cleansing breath and change the subject a little.

Jordin Sparks, who advanced to the next level (or whatever it’s called) in American Idol, is homeschooling. (her site w/video link and an article)

Additionally, Izzy links to an article on college and who should be attending it by Charles Murray. I don’t know what to think about it either. I don’t agree with all the IQ stuff. I think that the IQ stuff is bogus. (Don’t I sound edumicated when I use stuff and bogus in the same sentence?) The commentary raises a lot of questions, questions that quite a few homeschoolers (parents and students) have been asking themselves for a long time. I don’t think that Murray has all the answers, but his comments are worth bringing into the discussion, that is, for those homeschoolers who are thinking about college.

To add a little confusion or spice to the issue, we could always throw in Dorothy Sayers and her view that “… I am not at all sure that a pupil thoroughly proficient in the Trivium would not be fit to proceed immediately to the university at the age of 16….”

*I know most folks know, but I was in the dark for quite a while, so I shouldn’t assume that everyone knows what American Idol is. American Idol is (don’t quote me — it’s something like this) a television show where Simon Cowell, a record producer or something like that, is searching for the next person to sign up with his record label. He does an open call in various cities around the U.S. for singers to come try out. He brings them in and films them singing. Then he and a couple of other judges decide whether or not the singer is talented enough to progress to the next level. When they get down to around 10 contestants, viewers can vote on who progresses to the next level. The television show helps the singer who eventually wins build up a fan base so that when their album is eventually produced, there is already a market for their music. Good plan, eh? See Simon Cowell is a brilliant genius, isn’t he? American Idol originated in the UK, I believe; but it had a different name for obvious reasons.

Students would be required to attend school until they are 18, under a bill discussed Wednesday by [Iowa] state representatives.

The bill, House File 6, would raise the age from 16. Sponsor Lisa Heddens, an Ames Democrat, said the measure would send a message about school’s importance.

No, I think it’s about control.

Secret message to Lisa Heddens: Lisa, you can send messages about the importance of education without making a law.

Source.