Proud member of Alaskans For Global Warming!

As a single income family soon to be affected by the furlough, I would like to say that it is truly painful to lose 20% of your income.  For us it will mean living off of emergency savings since finding $1300 in savings per month in a budget that is already tight due to interior Alaska's high cost of living is proving impossible.

However, if we are expected to do it, then why can't every single government program do the same?  Take it right off of the top and figure it out.  

"Indifference" is an accurate way of framing it.  Rules versus relationships is another lens to look at the same problem.  Modern American schooling emphasizes following the rules, whether in the context of math (such as cross multiply and divide...because that is just the way you do it) or leaving history class because the bell has rung.  Relationships emphasize people as individuals and the connections our actions have on other individuals, just as the study of history is not over when you do a science experiment or read a novel.                                              

I am amazed at the discovery of intricate connections my homeschooling son is making  as he is reading the biographies of Galileo, Marie Curie, and Einstein.  Did you know that Galileo worked on a theory of relativity?  Does it matter?  Does it matter that my son gives out foodbank boxes on Tuesdays and remembers the patrons names and whether they came for their box when other sixth graders are learning about global warming and condoms?  

As an Alaskan, I have been very sad at the way Sarah's record was forgotten as soon as she joined the presidential ticket.  She was a truly great governor, rooting out corruption and managing the fiscal situation here brilliantly.   She was a servant of the people and sacrificed herself when state governance became impossible after the 2008 election.  That is often forgotten when she is criticized for "quitting."

1 and 38  Assuming the same terms for #1 as MJB.

I had horrible experiences with learning foreign languages during my high school and college years.  To avoid a repeat of the terror, I bought Rosetta Stone Italian and Latin for Children to give my elementary age homeschooled kids a better start.  I have learned more listening in on their lessons than I ever did in the traditional classroom, and there is quite a bit of overlap between the two languages.  It helps that they have a crazy Italian uncle.

Married

At the age of 23

First marriage

15 years going strong, three kids (12, 8, 3)

There is a distinction between inequality and inequality at your expense.  Most people don't mind having less than their neighbor, they mind having less than their neighbor because he took it from them.  As conservatives, we like to say that people are mistaken that they have less because someone else took more than their fair share, but the idea isn't completely wrong.  

Maybe we need to steal the language of the Left and talk more about inequality and oppression: in education (the public school system is designed to keep your children down so certain classes of people never have the education necessary to be a free man), in healthcare (the government doesn't want you to know how much your hospital stay costs so you have to pay more while other people pay nothing), and in entitlement programs (the social security system takes money from you, spends it on other people, then lies to you about where the money went and which pet programs it was spent on).  

A  local radio host mentioned tonight that a petition for secession has been started for Alaska.  Here in Fairbanks we still have bumper stickers that say "Joe was right."  As it grows darker and colder that might even sound sane. (Joe Vogler was the founder of the Alaskan Independence Party who started a petition for Alaskan secession in 1973 and was murdered in 1993 a few weeks before speaking to the UN about Alaskan independence.  We are known for our crazy characters up here.) 

We have several charters in our chilly town, and the school board is begging for more.  At least one has a waiting list and a lottery.  I have wondered if a charter school would be a good idea for a second career after I am done with homeschooling my own.  

One thing I have noticed is that most charter schools seem to be elementary and not secondary schools.  Those last six years before voting age are crucial, are they not? 

I have often wondered what Mark Steyn would think if he knew his book was responsible for our two year old "caboose?"

This time we might want to think more about the long game.  The first liberal professors and teachers with unconstrained visions began their quest over 150 years ago.  We are reaping where Horace Mann and John Dewey sowed but wondering how we can have electoral victories in two or four years.  

We have to nourish a desire for freedom and goodness in our youth rather than for security, license, and possessions.  It might take 100 years to get results.

I went from teaching high school English and freshman English 111 at the local university to teaching my own children at home.  The two jobs are completely different.  Much of what I was taught in my education classes was intended for classroom management: teaching to all the learning styles, making sure a presentation was clear, dealing with interruptions and behavioral problems, and understanding and following curriculum and state objectives.  That is quite a different thing from sitting with my eleven year old on the couch, explaining how conservatives are different from liberals in answer to the question, "If I were born in a liberal family would I be a liberal and vote for President Obama?" or listening to my eight year old narrate from Plutarch.

There are no grades to hand out or parent/teacher conferences.  It is iron sharpening iron around here.  I have learned more about education in my years at home than I ever did in preparing  for classroom teaching.  Were I to go back to the classroom today, I would do things completely differently.  

My biggest mistakes as a homeschooling mom resulted from my presupposition that I could replicate the brick and mortar school model at home.  When I turned in grades and moved right on with what the curriculum and objectives said should come next, I didn't have to wrestle with what I personally wanted my children to know, understand, and do.  I also got very tired and frustrated.  Some things we are currently working through are Shakespeare's "Cymbeline", Story of the World: The Middle Ages, and Plutarch's Lives.  We love reading together and testing our recall and ability to make connections between history and literature.  It is much more enjoyable now.