No More Analogies?

SAT scores dip--I don't know that there's any significance to that since the test has undergone so many changes. But there's also this:

The new test has no analogies, more critical reading passages, and beefed-up math questions changes that could have made it harder for students with weaker course loads to do well.

That's too bad. The analogies were the most fun part of the test.

Were I a Teenager Selecting a College,

I might take a look at this list.

I looked at several of the institutions' websites. A few of them had some odd rules about only teaching creationism in science (What kind of "science" is that?), but several places looked very appealing.

Thomas Aquinas College looked particularly interesting. Check out the curriculum. Impressive.

The 35th Carnival of Homeschooling...

... is up.

Janine Cate of Why Homeschool will be hosting next week's carnival. Have some ideas about homeschooling? Go here for submission information.

Released

Now there was some good news to wake up to this morning:

Two FOX News journalists were released by their kidnappers Sunday, nearly two weeks after they were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.

Also from the article:

"We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint," Centanni told FOX News. "Don't get me wrong here. I have the highest respect for Islam, and I learned a lot of good things about it, but it was something we felt we had to do because they had the guns, and we didn't know what the hell was going on."

What is the point of telling someone to convert at gunpoint?

Religious Reason for Not Supporting ID

There are all sorts of scientific reasons for not supporting the teaching of Intelligent Design, but I won't go into them here.

I will, however, point out what I think is a religious reason for being skeptical of ID theories. As I understand it, the premise of ID is that certain steps in evolution would be impossible if not for the intervention of an intelligent designer a.k.a. God. This seems strange to me. If God chose evolution as his process of creating intelligent life, doesn't the premise of ID imply that God couldn't set up his dominos right the first time around? That his chain of creation stalled out here and there and needed a few jumpstarts?

ID strikes me as being very limiting to a being who knows all means and sees all ends.

Gills or a Tail?

Gills as in regular fish gills that would allow you to breathe underwater. Tail as in a monkey tail, capable of manipulating objects and holding up your body weight.

As I see it, the tail would be very handy and could be used most all of the time as a third, less dexterous hand. The gills, though more limited in application, would be great for recreation and would open up new worlds to the freshly gilled man.

So what would you choose: gills or a tail? Why?

Work and Books

Light blogging lately. At work they've just hired someone who will take over my job when I resign in about five or six months. The new person is great, so that's all going extremely well. On the homefront I'm trying to push through the mountain of child-rearing books that we have amassed from friends, family, and Amazon. So far this is my favorite.

I Would Own Both an Affected Dell and an Affected iBook

Apple recalls lots of laptop batteries too.

They're Alive!

Hooray!

Let us hope that they are quickly found.

News by Law Firm

What are the odds that this story was handed to Dateline by a law firm that provided a list of people to interview including sympathetic academics and "victims?" The television version included a nauseating round table with people blaming McDonald's for making them fat.

This isn't journalism; it's lawsuit PR. I can't believe that any serious person even entertains the idea that food companies are responsible for people's obesity.

UPDATE: Okay, that might be a bit harsh. I don't know of any evidence that these sources were compiled by lawyers. I just wouldn't be suprised if they were. These lawsuits disgust me.

Context Matters in Inflammatory Teacher Flag Burning

It was linked on Drudge:

A Stuart Middle School teacher has been removed from the classroom after he burned two American flags in class during a lesson on freedom of speech, Jefferson County Public Schools officials said.

Dan Holden, who teaches seventh-grade social studies, burned small flags in two different classes Friday and asked students to write an opinion paper about it, district spokeswoman Lauren Roberts said.

And is now under discussion on Althouse.

Most people seem very upset. I'm not.

Context matters, and I can think of a reasonable scenerio in which a teacher could do this. What if the lesson had gone something like this?

"Okay, so we all agree that free speech is important. What about limits on free speech? Should there be limits? What should those limits be?" Some kids say that there should be no limits. "Okay, so are you saying that I should be able to do this?" [Insert offensive thing here.] "What did you think about that? Should I be able to do that? Why or why not? If you were going to set limits on free speech, how would you set those limits? If you are against all limits, how would you defend your position to people who are deeply offended by others' words and actions?"

What do you think?

Ballpark Bust

Looks like I'm not the only one who thinks that the Springdale ballpark plan is a fiasco.

Thanks to Matt from Overtaken by Events who emailed me the link writing, "That's gonna leave a mark." Heh.

The 34th Carnival of Homeschooling...

... is up.

Snakes on a Plane

Fantastic. It was the exact movie that it should have been. Hilarious.

Have you seen it?

Best rental I've watched in a long time: Brick. Film noir set in high school. Skillfully done, different, and highly enjoyable.

What's the best DVD you've rented or purchased lately?

Considering McCain

These blogosphere straw polls have me thinking about who I'll support in the Republican Presidential Primaries. The common wisdom is that the Democrats will run Hillary. I do not want Hillary Clinton to be the first female President of the United States, so I'm only considering candidates who I am reasonably sure will beat her.

By my thinking (really guessing), this narrows the field to the following:

• Rice
• McCain
• Giuliani

Rice has exhibited no intention of running, so that leaves McCain and Giuliani for now.

For me, there are three top desires in a candidate:

• Tough as nails in the War on Terror.
• Anti-abortion-choice.
• Pro-growth.

I trust both Giuliani and McCain on desire number one. The next two issues are split: Giuliani is pro-abortion-choice, and I'm not convinced that McCain is particularly pro-growth.

In the past I would never have considered voting for McCain. I think he's a bit of a political turncoat and quite a bit anti First Amendment considering his Incumbency Protection Act (McCain-Feingold). But the abortion issue trumps a lot. I don't know that I could vote for a pro-abortion-choice candidate in good conscience over an anti-abortion-choice candidate if I could reasonably believe that both candidates would aggressively fight the War on Terror.

So what about you other anti-abortion-choice people out there? (Obviously my pro-abortion-choice readers won't face this conflict.) Could you vote for Giuliani if he were up against McCain?

The 33rd Carnival of Homeschooling...

... is up.

Somehow I missed the 32nd carnival, so make sure to check that out as well.

UPDATE: From the current carnival, I especially enjoyed this post about how public education wastes money. I couldn't agree more.

Artistry Through History

There's an excellent comments thread at Althouse where she has asked her readers to "offer up some suggestions for someone who wants a sublime aesthetic experience while reading history."

I was happy to see that so many mentioned Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I ordered this book right before I found out that I was pregnant, and it has been gathering dust on the nightstand while I wade through endless child-rearing books. Seeing it recommended by so many makes me eager to get back to it.

I've linked to the abridgement which is a hardy 1536 pages and contains about two thirds of the original. If you wanted something shorter, you could go with the abridged edition from Penguin Classics. For something longer, the unabridged first three volumes might be a good place to start.

South Korea Knows Education

So does Hong Kong. So does Finland. The United States? Not so much.

Another good reason to consider homeschooling.

The study is from 2003, but they're getting ready to do a new one in 2007.

"But you're not a teacher. How will you teach your children?" "I may not be a teacher, but I can certainly do better than that."

Bad Advice?

"Live like there's no tomorrow."

Since that's only true on one single day out of your entire life, is that really good advice?

Sheehan "Forced" to End "Fast"

A prediction comes true:

Anti-war demonstrator Cindy Sheehan was hospitalized Friday evening for dehydration and exhaustion after fasting for more than a month and protesting earlier this week in 100-degree weather, friends and relatives said. ...

On doctors orders, she ate for the first time in about 37 days, Burns said.

The prediction from July 5th:

If Sheehan does truly fast without sneaking food, she will tire of it before her two months are up. She'll feign a medical emergency (my guess: collapsing from exhaustion), be taken to the hospital, and end her fast. Then she'll hail herself as having almost died in service to her ideals, and the Left will trumpet her as a great hero.

Of course, I guess I wasn't totally accurate as she was both eating food and has ended the fast by collapsing from exhaustion.

Why does the news report that she was fasting? Jamba Juice with protein powder does not constitute a fast.

iPod Videos

I get promotions for them in my email from iTunes all the time. I can't imagine watching anything on that tiny screen.

Are you buying these? Do they appeal to you?

Endless War

I have so far resisted posting about the conflict between Israel and Hizbullah. Most everything that can be said has been said.

If you're wondering where I stand, I stand with Israel. These ceasefires and negotiations of the past have brought nothing but endless conflict. It is time for Israel to clean house and crush Hizbullah for good if the people in that region are ever to have peace.

Reminder from Terrorists and a Coincidence

Terrorists reminded us that they are still at war with the West whether the people of the West care to acknowledge it or not.

Coincidentally I watched this movie last night. In the movie, agents try to track down a missing explosive liquid. Strange when I got into the car this morning and heard, "the explosive liquid can be milky or clear... no liquids are being allowed onboard."

A Plan We Could Agree On

I've disagreed with the guys at the fiveforty over the baseball stadium, but now they have an idea that we could agree on:

You know what might have been ideal? Something like a Green Bay Packers situation where those citizens of Springdale who wanted to see a baseball team come to town could invest. That way, participation would have been voluntary, but the town could have kept the team out of the hands of a private organization.

I don't care about keeping the team "out of the hands of a private organization," but I think it would be great if investment was voluntary and anyone in town could contribute. I've been against the tax funded stadium from the beginning, but I love baseball and would certainly chip in to build a privately funded ballpark.

Judgement Pell-Mel'

I haven't yet posted here about the incident with Mel Gibson, but I've commented quite a bit over at Althouse. I greatly enjoyed Alvin Kimel's post on the matter.

I won't address the drunk driving. That issue is clear, and he'll pay the penalty for it.

As for his words: what Gibson said was horrible, but I am not convinced that his words while raging drunk express his true thoughts. Based on the account of events, Gibson sounds as though he was being as aggressive as possible. He not only made anti-Semitic remarks to a Jewish officer, but he also called a female officer "sugar tits," tried to pee on the floor, tried to break the phone, screamed that he would get everyone, yelled that he owned all of Malibu, and who knows what else. I think that he said what he said to be belligerent, not to express his true, secret feelings.

Many have pointed out that a normal person doesn't yell anti-Semitic obscenities while intoxicated. That's true. But most normal people don't have an anti-Semitic parent. Gibson does. As I commented on Althouse, "Just because he has the slur scripts, doesn't mean he believes them or that they came from his own thoughts."

I'm not going to jump to the conclusion that he's an anti-Semite based on his drunken ravings. I would have to see evidence of it in his life and work. As of now, I don't see it.

Moreover, I don't believe that a person is his "truest self" when he is at his most debased, and I don't believe that alcohol provides a window into a man's soul.

Supplementation Revelation

I just discovered that I like egg protein MUCH better than whey protein. The egg is a lot more expensive, but the whey protein makes me slightly nauseous, and last week when I was feeling ill, I couldn't bring myself to drink it. So I ordered the egg, and it came in today. Delicious. That's saying a lot for a protein powder.

Yes, this is a small thing, but when you're talking about something that you eat every single day, enjoying it matters.

And no, I am not affiliated in any way with Affordable Supplements. Mr. Freeman Hunt and I just buy all of our protein from there.

What was the last food that you discovered you loved?

She Says Don't Flee

Says Condi to Cubans. My thoughts would be different: If you live in a communist country, flee! Flee at your first opportunity! Build a raft, make a disguise, pay people off, whatever you have to do to escape.

UPDATE: This man escaped North Korea.

Don't Have Talent? Doesn't Matter

It's hard work that pays off:

The one thing that all expertise theorists agree on is that it takes enormous effort to build these structures in the mind. Simon coined a psychological law of his own, the 10-year rule, which states that it takes approximately a decade of heavy labor to master any field. Even child prodigies, such as Gauss in mathematics, Mozart in music and Bobby Fischer in chess, must have made an equivalent effort, perhaps by starting earlier and working harder than others. ...

Ericsson argues that what matters is not experience per se but "effortful study," which entails continually tackling challenges that lie just beyond one's competence. That is why it is possible for enthusiasts to spend tens of thousands of hours playing chess or golf or a musical instrument without ever advancing beyond the amateur level and why a properly trained student can overtake them in a relatively short time.

But specific innate intelligence gives the real edge, right? Wrong.

At this point, many skeptics will finally lose patience. Surely, they will say, it takes more to get to Carnegie Hall than practice, practice, practice. Yet this belief in the importance of innate talent, strongest perhaps among the experts themselves and their trainers, is strangely lacking in hard evidence to substantiate it. In 2002 Gobet conducted a study of British chess players ranging from amateurs to grandmasters and found no connection at all between their playing strengths and their visual-spatial abilities, as measured by shape-memory tests. Other researchers have found that the abilities of professional handicappers to predict the results of horse races did not correlate at all with their mathematical abilities.

Thus:

Instead of perpetually pondering the question, "Why can't Johnny read?" perhaps educators should ask, "Why should there be anything in the world he can't learn to do?"

Excellent! This perfectly illustrates my biggest pet peeve in education: low expectations. An average person has a phenomenal mind, capable of extraordinary things. But most people's minds are woefully under-used because so little is expected.

Why can't your average person be expected to read the great classics in school? Why shouldn't he be able to master advanced mathematics? He can, and he should. But instead he's told, "We don't recommend the honors track for you," and so he spends his days in high school English class reading The Hot Zone and memorizing vocabulary words like "viral" and "outbreak."*

And the low expectations don't only apply to people of average intelligence. For people of high intelligence, the value of hard work is often undercut by how they are treated in school. Constantly given work below their levels of ability and then praised for being "so smart," gifted students are provided with little incentive to exert much effort. With so many constant and easy successes, such a student is also primed to give up when faced with actual frustration. "Everything else is easy. I must not have any talent for this. Must not be for me."

According to the article, whatever you are motivated to pursue is for you, no matter what sort of intelligences you happened to be born with. You only have to work.

Doesn't that make you want to start studying something?

Via Ann Althouse writing on Instapundit about a post by Amba.

*That was an actual several week unit taken from a senior high regular English class at a well-rated public school.

Much Sicker

Just when I was thinking about not feeling well, I read this. Poor Anchoress. A little morning sickness suddenly doesn't seem too bad.

What a Deal

Wow. The people of Springdale, Arkansas pay $50,000,000 for a stadium and get back $325,000 a year in rent. After 300,000 tickets are sold each year, more than twice the number of tickets the Wranglers have been selling in Wichita, the city gets half of the revenue from any additional tickets. Bonus: The ballpark would be managed by appointed, rather than elected, officials.

In short: We're getting hosed.

The 31st Carnival of Homeschooling...

... is up. I like the space theme.

Under the Weather

Sorry about the light posting. I haven't been feeling well for the last several days.