Survive the Experience

Blog Moving!

2009-02-12T16:09:00.001-05:00

OK, y'all, I've had a bunch of people beta it, and the only browser having trouble is Explorer, which has trouble with all Blogger Beta blogs, AFAIK. So, I am officially moving the blog to its new home:

Grassroots Homeschool

I'll leave Survive the Experience up for a while, but all my posts are already moved over, and I also migrated our posts from the farm blog, since we never post to it. There's a link in the right-hand sidebar to the Local Harvest listing for the farmers' market where we sell our produce and eggs.

Hope you like it! Please talk it up/link to me/subscribe, if you don't mind, so that folks will pick up on the change.

Thanks,
Saille.

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Synchronicity

2009-02-10T10:41:00.003-05:00

When I was in elementary school, the Tulsa paper put out an ad soliciting children to do book reviews on some of the kiddie lit. advance copies they received. I signed up. Initially, I wrote about the Chronicles of Narnia (to get my courage up), but I think I wrote two more, one on Hank the Cowdog, the other about The Boy and His Otter, by A.R. Lloyd. Unfortunately, although I loved the book, I lost track of my copy, and I don't know where any of my juvenile press clippings are. To complicate things, although I could picture the cover clearly, I'd forgotten the exact title and author. I've searched for it over the years, but never found it. I probably would have turned to Book Stumpers sooner or later.

In January, I visited my friend Tami in the Schenectady area, and we went to the Moon and River Cafe with our friend Cecile. They had several shelves of books, so while the mamas talked, our children browsed. After flipping through some sort of Wild Kingdom book, Will turned to cookbooks, and Posy rummaged on her own for a while. A few minutes later, I heard, "Mama, look at this one! It has an otter!" I looked up, and there it was. We bought it on the spot, and Posy and I are reading it now.

Sharing reading interests with the kids is one of my favorite things about being a mom. I love that one of my own children delivered this book back into my hands.

Lazy Days Skirt

2009-02-06T23:15:00.002-05:00

I finished my first Lazy Days Skirt for Posy. It was a fairly quick project. I'd been hankering to do something with this Alexander Henry fabric, too.

It's very cute on her, but she got up on the wrong side of the bed the day I finished, so she didn't want to model. I'll catch her in it this spring, when she can't help kicking up her heels.

How's Your Feed?

2009-02-04T20:54:00.001-05:00

You've gotta love it when they just shamelessly wave the elephant all around like this:

Candlemas/Imbolc

2009-02-03T13:51:00.005-05:00

I'm going to have to settle on one or the other...I hadn't realized how many Catholic homeschoolers celebrate Candlemas, and I'm not actually sure that makes it easier to pick. It's nice to have a broad shorthand term, but on the other hand, I think our celebrations are somewhat different.

It was a really nice day. We made jar candles for our family altar. I forgot to teach the kids to backfill, but the candles still look good, and it won't hurt to save some skills for next year. I had some empty jars from Burt's Bees products that worked well as votive holders, and we simply used paraffin wax and crayons, melted in the toaster oven. We used prepackaged votive wicks. I'd have liked to do beeswax, but it's twice the price, so it will require some advance planning for next year. I'm hoping to find a local hobbyist beekeeper who will part with wax in barter. The rainbow candle was the kids' idea, a way of using the excess wax we'd have used for backfilling, if I'd remembered.

After the candle making was done, we read some stories and talked about the holiday. Then we made braided bread loaves. I love the recipe: it has tomato paste and Italian herbs in it, and an egg yolk wash makes it even more colorful. I have video Will took, but I think I need PB to edit it, b/c Graeme had again divested himself of clothing, and Will doesn't yet have the discernment as a cameraman to avoid that sort of thing.

The kids got art supplies as gifts...nice Faber Castell colored pencils. They crafted and watched Meet The Robinsons in the late afternoon...I'd expected that to be hokey, and had been avoiding it on Netflix, but it turned out to be wonderful and timely, for reasons I'll bring up again later. I worked on an embroidered hanging that was supposed to be done and hanging in honor of the holiday, but wasn't. The linen I'm using is thin, and I think I need some sort of stabilizing fabric on the back, but I settled for giving up the bullion knots and using satin stitch instead. When PB came home, we had a big baked pasta dish for dinner, with bread and salad, and we made Bananas Foster for dessert. The kids oohed and awed when we lit it.

Most of the activities we did this year are in Circle Round, which I'm assuming most interested parties already have, but if not, it's a wonderful book.

We held a short family ritual before bed, and talked about our well, and how we really can directly see and affect our water source, and why it's important. The kids were empowered and engaged. I think our at-home worship is falling into place. All in all, a great day.

Yes, this.

2009-02-01T21:08:00.001-05:00

These were the opening words at church today (the italics indicate congregational response):

We arrive out of many singular rooms, walking over the branching streets.

We come to be assured that brothers and sisters surround us, to restore their images on our eyes.

We enlarge our voices in common speaking and singing.

We try again that solitude found in the midst of those who with us seek their hidden reckonings.

Our eyes reclaim the remembered faces, their voices stir the surrounding air.

The warmth of their hands assures us, and the gladness of our spoken names.

This is the reason of cities, of homes, of assemblies in the houses of worship.

It is good to be with one another.

-Kenneth L. Patton

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Hopeful Signs

2009-01-30T20:47:00.001-05:00

We went to see Inkheart at our local movie theater today. Afterward, we were at the bookstore, and just now I was on our library system's website, and you know what? Guess which book is completely unavailable?

Nope, not Inkheart.

Inkspell. The sequel.

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Don?

2009-01-28T18:09:00.001-05:00

Now, who would be Google-searching Don Gonyea?

From Washington D.C.?

And get three pages into the search?

And *actually click* on my blog?

_________

I see three possibilities here, and I come to the same conclusion each time.

•If you're a brand-spanking-new NPR intern trying to find out everything possible about Don Gonyea, you should come back in a month and dish the dirt.

•If you're a colleague (Steve? Michelle? Nina?) looking for prank fodder, I'm in. Come back and dish the dirt.

•If you're Don, don't you sort of have to acknowledge a Gonyea groupie when you find one? Come back! Dish the dirt! Or I'll help Carl/Renee/whoever prank you.

Whoever you are, you haven't gotten rid of me. I'll be higher up in the search returns next time.

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On Journals

2009-01-28T14:23:00.001-05:00

I love the kind of things that are going on in Posy's journal. Below we have a buzzing crab thing (her words). Upon closer inspection, it appears to also be roaring.

Here is a giant girl wielding a lollipop club. The flower beside her is singing. When I first saw it, I thought it must be singing well, because even its leaves are smiling. Only now does it occur to me to wonder where that club is going, and why.

I love how we see the giant from the perspective of her very large feet coming our way. As Will would say, giant girl appropinquat. (Lively Latin is all about approach just now. Ursae appropinquant. Agricola appropinquat. You get the idea.) Maybe the giant girl is jumping up and down, as small girls sometimes do.

Also please observe the curly hair. Everything about Posy is curly: her hair, her art, even her handwriting:

Will's entries, on the other hand, are all about dragons and castles.

When it comes to homeschooling, one of the only things I did right the first time was to choose Moleskine journals.

The ones I buy are the kraft covered plain (unlined), pocket-size/small. They come in a package of three for ten dollars, and one journal seems to last my kids about three months. The pages are perforated, but there's also a pocket inside the cover, and this quarter is the first time one of the kids has roughed a journal up enough to matter. Will has started taking his to bed with him, and I think going up and down the ladder is causing some wear and tear. They're small enough to travel easily, but satisfyingly real. Will and Posy seize new ones like Anne Shirley getting a composition book, and decorate the cover immediately.

At Grassroots Homeschool, a journal is a completely separate entity from grammar or formal writing and art study. When we add Classical Writing next year (Will only), I will make it clear that CW is about learning to master specific forms, and journals are about personal freedom to write and draw what one likes.

We are at a crossroads with journaling. It has occurred to Will that he can write things in his journal that are private; that he, in fact, has the need for a private writing life. As much as I love this self-contained record of free writing samples, I may soon find myself scanning only the entries I'm allowed to see.

Global Youth Service Day

2009-01-27T11:35:00.004-05:00

In hunting around and working on the blog redesign, I found that the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service is actually part of a trio of programs devoted to youth service. The MLK, Jr. Day of Service and Global Youth Service Day serve as book ends to the larger "Semester of Service", a service learning program primarily designed for public schools.

Ho-hum, you say, public schools. That's not really the point around these here parts, is it? Well, no...but I do like me some shiny support materials, like posters and planning forms. State Farm is a national sponsor, which got my attention, since they also sponsored the American Promise curriculum, which I love (much better than Exxon's environmental resources). They're also smart enough to have wired themselves through twitter, facebook, flickr and so on...and GYSD is scheduled for the end of April, which is very convenient if you're about to dive into an annual cleanup that occurs at just that time. I'm waiting to see what the Utica Marsh folks say, but I'm hoping they'll love the idea of registering themselves as a GYSD event.

If you're interested, here's the site. There are lots of great ideas, and Youth Service America is worth a good hard look on its own merits. However, for whatever reason, the resources they mention aren't actually hyper-linked on the site yet. If you want them now, go here, to the Semester of Service blog. They're in the sidebar. Oh, also, look HERE!

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Blog Changes

2009-01-26T17:42:00.001-05:00

I spent most of the weekend tinkering around with various blog platforms, trying to decide if I'm staying with blogger or moving.

Right now, my only real complaint is that I want a very simple, three-column template with a customizable header. I can easily get this on Wordpress, but I won't have the freedom with widgets that blogger offers. I've tried the sites that tell you how to tweak Minima, but my right-hand sidebar always winds up in my footer, and I don't know why.

So, either I'm going to get fed up with trying to reinvent (or at least recode) the wheel and go to the least expensive Typepad blog, or some deus ex machina will provide me with the means to attain my dreams of three columns and remain on blogger.

Either way, that's where some of my posting energy is going. Also, I'm not willing to finish my homeschool organization series until this upstairs room resolves itself. It's driving me crazy. I can't keep it tidy.

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Too Early For This

2009-01-22T10:07:00.001-05:00

6:30 a.m., watching an episode of Nature:

Graeme: Mom, are those canteloupes?
Me: No, they're gazelles. Canteloupes are fruit.
Graeme: Oh. Can I have some?

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MLK Day Food Drive

2009-01-21T16:17:00.005-05:00

I posted here about the launch of a new national service website by the Obama administration, and the kickoff on Martin Luther King Day, our National Day of Service. The only problem was...well, it was the same problem it usually is. There were plenty of events in Syracuse, but none in Utica. So, much like Redneck Mother, I decided on a project and went in ass over teakettle. I called the local food bank, since I'd been hearing lots of buzz about food shortages this winter, and got some helpful tips from Director Kim Strong on running a food and winter clothing drive. I got permission to staff a drop-off site at our church, and the kids made signs (most of which said "feed poor people"...probably could have been better worded, but it was one of those projects they ran off to do privately, with great glee).

I posted the event online, emailed everyone I knew and asked them email everyone *they* knew, and handed out flyers at church for people to put up around town/in their workplace. In the invitation, I encouraged people to list additional drop-off sites if they were willing to staff them. I emailed several television stations a press release.

I thought it would end up being more of an object lesson for my kids than a big success as a service project, and that was fine with me.

Then I started getting calls and emails. Not a lot, mind you. But the delightful Ami called to tell me that she had already jumped through all the necessary hoops to host a drop-off site at Clinton Village Square, always a good spot for social activism. She'd listed it online and emailed more or less our entire church. Then my boss, who runs the local tutoring center, hit on the idea of offering to match students' donated incentive tokens to a dollar amount, which she'd then spend on food.

That Sunday, many people showed up at church with bags of clothes and food, including several of the RE students (I'm planning to draft them next year). Monday morning, when the kids and I pulled into the church parking lot, a woman I knew slightly from the Obama campaign was already waiting to help me load drop-offs into my van.

We had a quiet start, so the kids seized the opportunity to play in the snow (note to self for next year: bring snow pants!)

Later, after my first volunteer had left, Bill Gazitano, who had gone canvassing with the kids and I a few months ago, arrived and told me to put him to work. Right about then we had a flurry of donations, so his help was invaluable. Here he is with Diane Stebbins, who helps to run the church's summer Peace Camp. The kids love her, which is wonderful, because by then they were all soaking wet and confined to the nursery, and Bill and I were both collecting donations. She graciously entertained them while we did so.

In the end, we filled the van with as much clothing and food as would permit the transport of three children, and Bill took some more in his car. We went to the food bank, where an army of volunteers were waiting to empty the cars. Here we have Amy James (another friend from church) with another volunteer from Hamilton College, Director Kim Strong, the kids, and Bill Gazitano. Hamilton College honors the National Day of Service, so there were a lot of students and professors at the Food Bank. I'll try to gank a picture from Kim's facebook page, because she did take overalls of the group.

But best of all were Ami and David.

The Clinton drop-off site was a phenomenon. MoveOn and other sites had sent out mass emails telling people to check for events in their area on usaservice.org. As a result, not only did it snow donations in Clinton, but several members of the League of Women Voters showed up to help throughout the morning, including Mona, another familiar face from the Obama campaign. That's her on the left:

We had just been teasing David about his Ford Flex, the huge and ugly wagon/SUV his dealership had loaned him when he took his Taurus in for repair...now we know there was an unseen hand at work.

They filled it.

They filled this great big ugly car. And Mona's. They had fifty bags of clothes.

The food bank served pizza to volunteers, which thrilled Will in particular. Posy and Graeme had soaking wet socks, and I wanted to leave. I offered to buy him pizza on the way home, but what he really wanted was to stay and be part of it. When tears threatened, Posy insisted we stay. Afterward, I turned up the heat in the car, and she took off her socks and rode home with her feet in my gloves. She said it was comfy.

Kim said she had never had so many MLK volunteers before. The Day of Service was the top news story on NPR all day...nationally, we doubled the number of last year's MLK volunteers.

I cannot wait to do this again. Inspired by Redneck Mother, I'm planning to contact the Utica Marsh Council and rally volunteers for the spring clean-up in April. Local homeschoolers, expect me to come banging on your doors particularly hard. I see no reason we can't roll this into our water cycle studies!

Will's First Poem

2009-01-21T11:56:00.003-05:00

(I took the liberty of transcribing it in conventional spelling.)

Lion Lying on the Hill

Lion lying on the hill
On the hill there he lay
the golden lion, golden mane
mane getting longer every day

The End

I thought you would like this because I made it.

My favorite thing about this poem is where he wrote it. He worked on this at night, in his bunk bed, by the glow of the Christmas lights wrapped around the railing. I didn't suggest that he write a poem. He just had an impulse.

Look Jenny, Free Coffee!

2009-01-20T21:34:00.002-05:00

But only January 21-25th...I saw it on CNN during inaugural coverage, but you can check it out at the Starbucks websit e.

Obama-mania is sweeping the nation! I could actually get to like Starbucks if they keep this up.

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Midwifery and Change

2009-01-20T15:09:00.002-05:00

As some of you know, I've had three midwife-attended births: Will in a birthing center, Posy at home, and Graeme during a complicated pregnancy that culminated in a c-section. In all three cases, the support and expertise of a professional with whom I shared a common birth model was invaluable. However, there are still enough restrictions on the rights of lay midwives to practice that even women actively seeking midwifery care are unable to find it. Even when they can, it's rarely covered by insurance, despite being more cost-effective. Here is something you can do to support Certified Professional Midwives today, while you've still got your inaugural buzz!

From Steff Hedenkamp of THE BIG PUSH FOR MIDWIVES:

Greetings!

In honor of today's Inauguration theme, "A New Birth of Freedom," we at The Big Push for Midwives are asking all of you to take a few minutes to send an email with the subject heading "A New Birth of Freedom" to our new president today. Click on the URL below and send a very simple but powerful message to the Obama administration:
"Please be sure to include Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs), who specialize in providing out-of-hospital maternity care, in federal healthcare reform."
http://change.gov/page/s/healthcare [takes you to a window for e-mailing your message]

Our goal is to submit 5,000 emails by midnight today. That number will put us ahead of every other grassroots movement that has submitted comments to the Obama administration and will ensure that our issue expanding access to out-of-hospital births attended by CPMs gets the attention it deserves.

Please send a quick email notification to this list or to The Big Push for Midwives Facebook wall after you post your comment so we can keep a running tally.

Keep in mind that we are at a crossroads. Healthcare reform is now inevitable and will be based on the reimbursement categories and rates for Medicaid and federal employees. Private insurers are widely expected to follow suit. So if CPMs are not included as recognized providers in federal healthcare reform, there is a very real possibility that home birth families will not be able to receive insurance reimbursement, regardless of whether they have private or public healthcare insurance.

Please act now.
Thank you very, very much.

Steff Hedenkamp | Communications Coordinator | The Big Push for Midwives Campaign | 816.506.4630
steff@thebigpushformidwives.org
TheBigPushForMidwives.org

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Inauguration Day

2009-01-20T12:35:00.006-05:00

There are not proper words to describe the thunder of two miles and two millions of Americans applauding their new President, or the visual impact of millions of American flags waving until Washington Mall resembled nothing so much as a swirling sea of peppermint candy.

I have spent the last eight years feeling that now former President Bush never fully appreciated the impact or the personal nature of his policies; that they did not occur in a vacuum, that they impacted his and our souls.

It has never occurred to me to have those worries about President Obama, who gave an address that renewed the sense of empowerment I experience each time I hear him orate. Here are some favorite passages:

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint."

"To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

"What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship."

Our days of demonstrating our patriotism by going to the mall are over. Homeschoolers are uniquely positioned to raise their children in a daily spirit of community service and activism.

Now we have a President smart enough to ask for our help.

Welcome, President Obama.

History Reading List

2009-01-19T20:41:00.004-05:00

Here, in no particular order, is a list of history books I'm dying to read. All are in line with SOTW 2.

The Middle Ages, by Morris Bishop
The Italian Renaissance, by J.H. Plumb
A Distant Mirror, by Barbara W. Tuchman
A World Lit Only By Fire, by William Manchester
1453, by Roger Crowley
Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire, by Judith Herrin
The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, by Amin Maalouf
The Ornament of the World, by Maria Rosa Menocal
The Far Traveler, by Nancy Marie Brown
Sailing From Byzantium, by Colin Wells
A History of the Vikings, by Gwyn Jones
A Reformation Reader, by Denis Janz
The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall, by Christoper Hibbert

Calm Center

2009-01-18T22:45:00.004-05:00

This is the cozy cafe where I ate dessert with my IBP* friend Tami and finally, *finally*, Cecile. Here she is, with her swanlike child:

Aren't they beautiful?

I have known Cecile, in one capacity or another, since...2000? But only online, and very occasionally by phone. She is funny, gutsy, sexy, brilliant, strong and good and fierce of heart. I have waited so long just to feel that energy in person, and the hello hug alone was worth the drive. On the way over, I steeled myself to just miss her. Her visit with Tami was scheduled to be over; I knew she had other plans. I'd tried and failed to get out of work early, our pipes had frozen...the minutiae of life had interfered. To my delight and gratitude, she canceled her other plans and we all spent a long afternoon and evening together before my children fell fast asleep, their heads pillowed on stacks of books bought at the cafe or bestowed upon them by Tami's daughter, their works of art still drying in the other room.

We ate delicious, healthy food that Tami cooked (and she's a fantastic cook, so that's a big deal), cheered on a fellow mama posting her own labor updates by iPhone from the hospital, talked about future endeavors and built castles in the air. Tami has the ability to make one feel instantly at home, and she exudes a sort of calm, peaceful pragmatism. The house was rife with children, dogs, and adults coming and going, but it felt like I was on a retreat...with wine.

Will with Tami and Cecile's girls:

Tami taking Graeme very seriously (which he adores):

The network within which these friendships has developed never ceases to amaze me by being as true in person as it is in writing, for me and my children, as well. The daily round has been enormously hectic these last few weeks, and I fleetingly considered telling Tami I was just too tired to come. In the end, I couldn't stand to miss this chance. What a gift.

*itty-bitty powerhouse. I have identified this as a sub-genre of woman, but I bestow this title on very, very few. You know who you are.

Music Lessons

2009-01-16T16:40:00.004-05:00

Before the holidays, I posted pics of our new-to-us piano. Soon afterward, I purchased My First Piano Adventures to use with both kids. We bought one copy of the lesson book and two copies of the student workbook. It wound up being a mistake, not because the books aren't cute or useful, but because Will, who last year would pitch a fit over anything that looked more complicated than a BOB book, felt they were beneath his dignity. I can see his point. I didn't get to see as much of them as I'd have liked before purchasing, and they're really geared toward preschoolers. The songs on the CD are very cutesy, and it was sort of like listening to Wee Sing meets Disney meets Getting Gay With Kids. Posy likes them fine, but I upgraded Will to Piano Adventures Primer Level. I bought the theory, lesson and technique books. He groused about that, too, but most of it is sour grapes because he hates feeling awkward and new at this. By the end of today's lesson with the new books, he was focused and happy, so I think we'll hit a groove soon. Now I just need to run over and pick up the adult brush-up course on Monday morning!

To add a wrinkle, both big kids (Will in particular) have been agitating to learn the guitar. Now, private guitar lessons around here are 'spensive. If anyone has tips, by all means, bring them on. For the moment, I've compromised by acquiring Progressive Guitar Method For Young Beginners, which comes with a CD and a DVD. I pulled our languishing First Act kid-guitar out of storage and opened it up, and the kids tried it out this afternoon.

Now, I also happen to have in my possession a sixteen string lap harp, which I haven't used in I'm-not-going-to-tell-you-how-long. Posy started asking about it today, and I got it out and tuned it. It reinforced my assertions that they'll find basic voice training useful, because we used the piano and our voices to assist us. Posy now says she'd rather learn the harp than the guitar. I'm thinking of getting several of the books on this page. There are four at the bottom, including a book of pieces arranged for small harps, though still not *quite* as small as mine.

This has more or less evolved into a unit on string instruments. We've looked inside the piano at the strings and hammers, and compared that to the harp. We've talked about vibrations and string length. We've compared tuning the harp to tuning the guitar. We talked about using frets to play different notes and how much more range the guitar has than my harp, which has no sharping levers and a very limited range. I'm going to connect all this back to several orchestra-related websites. I'm also trying to track down a copy of Note By Note. Netflix, though miraculous, doesn't have it.

My youngest sister was supposed to ask my mom about sending me her old practice flute and my old clarinet (jack of all instruments, mistress of none). Next stop, woodwinds? (For unit study purposes...we know all about Farkle McBride here, and no, thank you.)

Wordless Wednesday

2009-01-14T16:41:00.002-05:00

The usefulness of heating vents in the morning:

Journaling

The sincerest form of flattery

Untitled

2009-01-12T14:23:00.001-05:00

How the City Hurts Your Brain

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Linky

2009-01-12T11:15:00.005-05:00

Crafty zeitgeist? Blog, She Wrote and I seem to be on the same crafting curve lately. I just brought home fabric for two of the Lazy Day skirts for Posy, and Julie and Brad's wedding pillowcases were done using a lettering alphabet from Sublime Stitching.

There also seemed to be a board-game gift trend on the homeschooling blogs I read. Since Rose (you have to look closely) and Blog, She Wrote have both shown theirs, here are ours:

This does not include puzzles and games we got but already had. That Royal Rescue game is one I'd never seen before, and it's particularly cool.

Oh, and who at Draoicht School got the Melissa and Doug Magic Set? Will got that, too! I say we pop popcorn and demand some entertainment.

A worthy rallying cry for educators everywhere.

One last link: this might actually motivate my to try making my own laundry soap again.

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Breakfast Time

2009-01-12T09:09:00.001-05:00

Posy: I'm yellow bowl. That makes me the sun.
Will: Well, I'm red bowl. Red bowl gives me wings.

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Relatively Philosophical

2009-01-10T21:35:00.001-05:00

I was wandering around the Classical Ed. world looking for Rosetta Stone discounts, and came across this article. I've read it before, and have great respect for the author, but this time, one particular quote caught my attention:

"While the ancients did not emphasize utilitarian arguments in defending or explaining their educational system, they did argue for it on cultural grounds. Ancient education meant enculturation, the process by which the highest values of their societies were passed on to the next generation. This is as necessary for us as it was for them—perhaps more so in this age of relativism and anti-intellectualism." (bolding mine)

Do you consider yourself a relativist?

I'll cop to being an anthropological relativist, even in regards to my own culture, or I wouldn't care so much about giving the children other people's lenses to look through. Does that make me a philosophical relativist as well? Here's a wiki-quote:

"Philosophical relativism, in contrast, is the skeptical position that asserts that the truth of a proposition depends on who interprets it because no moral or cultural consensus can or will be reached."

Well, I'm a Unitarian Universalist, so I think we've established that I not only agree that no moral or cultural consensus can be reached, I actually espouse not reaching one, at least insofar as I support the right to belong (or not) to any religion that styles itself as the Absolute Truth. Given that philosophical relativism also presupposes both realism and causality, I have no current objections.

I teach formal logic, so clearly PB and I are planning to give our children the tools to come to logical conclusions, but what if they come to the logical conclusion that the truth of some propositions is relative? Is it honestly possible never to come to that conclusion?

I recognize that it's each person's responsibility to take logical thinking to its terminus, and that just because someone says they're anti-relativist doesn't mean they aren't using relativistic reasoning, but I worry about anti-relativism in the context of the above article, because it seems to be code for absolutism. The first personification of this idea that leaps to mind is a cranky voice saying, "anti-relativism is how I say wrong is wrong, right before I tell you you're wrong and I'm right, and the Bible says so". That's interesting, but I think it presupposes facts not in evidence. Can one be a person of faith and an anti-relativist? How? Can one call an argument which is ultimately based on faith a logical, non-relative argument? Because it seems to me that faith is very relative, indeed.

What do you think?

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