Lift Up Your Hearts!

I haven't read A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder—How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place.  But for the mood I'm in now, maybe I should.  I can tell from the summaries and reviews that the authors have an interesting and most likely valid point, from which those of us on the losing side of the battle with entropy can take comfort.

However, at the moment my cluttered office and decidedly disorganized desk are not making the world a better place; not my world, anyway.  So I plan to treat myself tomorrow to some personal time (i.e. I'm going to try hard to carve out a non-interruptible hour) for combing some of the tangles out of my life.  Maybe it will take my mind off the fact that the new SD card I bought for my camera isn't working and I think it's the camera's problem because it works in my computer and I have an e-mail request for help in the works with Kodak but in the meantime I can't help being a bit annoyed and consequently grumpy.  Which may be why the mess is suddenly annoying.  Then again, I'm that way in other areas:  The length of my hair can go from "no problem" to "I MUST get a haircut NOW!" overnight....

Why am I relating all this inconsequential detail?  Because Janet misses knowing about the mundane events of our lives.  The rest of you can read or ignore at your pleasure (which you do anyway).

On Monday we attended the latest concert in the Orlando Philharmonic's Focus Series:  The Great Struass Dynasty.   I love that series because it features a smaller orchestra in a more intimate venue, the 300-seat Margeson Theatre. In our seats, we feel as if we could be part of the second violin section; that the sound is not well balanced there is more than made up for by the more direct experience.

This night we heard music from four members of Vienna's great Strauss dynasty:  Johann Sr., Johann Jr., Josef, and Eduard.  I'm embarrassed to say I've never cared much for their music, especially the waltzes, but this concert was great!  For one thing, the musicians appeared to be enjoying themselves, and it was impossible not to laugh at Carl Rendek's antics.  Imagine what such a fun-loving guy could do with such titles as Fireman's Polka, On Hunting, Chinese Galop, and ClearTrack Polka, all without detracting from the music, and you'll get the picture.  Is it true percussionists have more fun (even if they're not blond)?

However, that's not the most important of what made the concert so interesting to me.  The conductor was Andy Lane, and I'm sure he deserves most of the credit; whatever the reason, for the first time, Strauss waltzes made sense to me!  I can't explain it any further than that, but Janet, at least, will understand what I experienced.

The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child.  Volume 3:  Early Modern Times, by Susan Wise Bauer (Peace Hill Press, Charles City, Virginia, 2004)

Once a homeschooler, always a homeschooler.  Sometimes I can't help checking out the curriculum explosion that has taken place since the younger days of our own home education experiences.  As one might expect, some is awful, some great, and much in between.

Based on this one sample, Susan Wise Bauer's history books are on the high end of in between.  In addition to the five-star praises, there are some harsh reviews on Amazon for the first volume of this series.  Some of them clearly have an axe to grind on issues that don't bother me; some I agree with but find minor (such as her overuse of exclamation points); others I think refer to faults that were largely corrected by the time she wrote the third volume.

Because it is impossible—maybe even undesirable—to avoid bias in a history book, it is best to have a multi-sourced approach to history.  I wouldn't use Bauer's book as my only text.  It seems reasonably broad and fair to me, but even so, you can't put everything into an elementary school level book.

I chose this particular volume because the time period corresponded with a Teaching Company series we recently watched.  (I'll put in a link to the review when I get around to writing it.) Given that the latter was designed for college students, I'll have to say I was pleased with the level of agreement between the two on areas where they overlapped.  (The Teaching Company course dealt mainly with Europe, while Bauer's touches on many other parts of the world as well.)

I did spot two errors:  confusion of malaria and yellow fever in a discussion of the Haitian Revolt, and the implication that Napoleon's remains are still buried on St. Helena.  Of course there may be plenty of errors I missed in my ignorance.  But we found errors in our favorite math series, too.  This only reinforces the need for multiple sources.

My biggest complaint is the somewhat condescending tone—you know how people tend to sound when speaking to children!—that initially put me off.  However, it improved as I went further into the book, and I also learned not to let it bother me.

Overall, I was very impressed.  I learned many things myself, and plan to read the rest of the series.  It presents a great overview in story form, not a be-all and end-all when-you've-read-this-you'll-know-history, but one that plants seeds of interest to be watered and weeded with other materials.  Even so, if all an elementary school student learned was what is in this book, he'd be far ahead of almost any modern sixth grader.

I'm not conversant with reading levels, but anyone who can read Harry Potter should be fine with this book.  It would also be great read-aloud material for many ages. 

We spent over four hours at church this morning and heard not one word related to the Super Bowl!  I'll bet not many in this country can make the same claim.  (Janet probably can, though.)

Talking with Janet about the confusing differences between date notation in the U.S. and in Switzerland (month-day-year vs. day-month-year) led me, once again, to Wikipedia—this time for their article on date format.  There I learned that my favorite format for dating files, especially of letters and photographs, is actually the ISO 8601 standard:  yyyy-mm-dd (four digit year - two digit month - two digit day).  I chose that for the simple reason that the files sort easily into chronological order.  That's my format for files; for ordinary dates I'm not consistent, but often will use a format common to genealogists: e.g. 2 Feb 2007, which is pretty clear, except when sloppy handwriting confuses "Jun" and "Jan."

Having just received my third "are you okay???" message, I guess I'd better make a post.  We were under a tornato warning last night, with the storms expected to hit around midnight.  Somewhere around 5 a.m. I awoke to the sound of rain, and by about 6 it was pretty heavy, but it was coming straight down—no wind.  By 7 the rain had stopped and if it weren't for the news media I'd never have known that destruction was only a few miles away.  Thanks for caring, though!

Check out this essay by Andrew Pudewa on teaching writing.  I've been perusing his site, which I find very interesting, and was struck by this common-sense view of how to encourage children to develop good writing skills.  I'm especially pleased that he managed to drag in most of my favorite writers of educational philosophy:  Dorothy Sayers, Maria Montessori, Glenn Doman, and Arthur Robinson by name—and John Holt is well represented, though anonymously.

Jon alerted me to this performance by a man singing a duet with himself as a young boy soprano.  The idea itself is moving, and the arrangement lovely, but both are eclipsed by the boy's incredibly beautiful treble voice.

Why do I post it, other than to share the pleasure?  Because the song had barely begun when I knew that I knew that voice! Anyone who grew up in the 80's, or who had children at that time, has a good chance of recognizing it also.

Anyone accept my challenge?  I have a couple more hints I can give, but I doubt you'll need them.

Warning: don't read the comments until after you've made your guess.

Taking up Janet's challenge, I'm attempting to put a YouTube video in this post.  Being perennially out of date and out of touch, I think this was my first venture into YouTube-land.  As one of those whose lives are still affected, for better or (and) for worse, by Judge Green's decision to break up AT&T, I found it hysterical.

I wonder how much of the harm in the world has been done to people "for their own good."  I think of the Crusades, forced conversions, overzealous social workers who have ripped children from their families without cause (and, when proven wrong, without apology), the punishment of Native American and Deaf children who dared speak their mother tongues in school, and court-ordered therapy against the will of the patient.  One might argue that there were mixed motives on the parts of the do-gooders in these cases, but always the benefit of the victim was used as an excuse, and I believe in most cases the confidence of doing a good thing was truly a major motivating factor.

No doubt those who would force young girls to take the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine are moved by similar altruistic desires.  What's the big deal?  If a simple immunization can greatly reduce one's risk of cervical cancer, why not?  Well, that may be a good reason for getting it oneself, although maybe not.  After all, cervical cancer is one of the most easily detectible and treatable cancers, and in any case one can virtually eliminate the HPV risk simply by remaining sexually abstinent or faithfully monogamous.  In any case, it's hardly a credible rationale for forcing the vaccine on other people.

It's true that most states already require several vaccines of their schoolchildren, and in some cases it's understandable.  Diseases such as measles and polio are highly contagious and can spread rapidly through a classroom.  This is not the case for HPV.  What's more, pending legislation in Kentucky would extend the HPV immunization requirement to homeschoolers as well!  For that there is no excuse.

Having lived long enough to see vaccines and other medical procedures come and go, with some touted as safe later shown to have devastating consequences, I'm openly skeptical of assertions that the new vaccine is safe.  All vaccines carry with them an element of risk, and the risk/benefit ratio is not the same for all people.  No law, however well-intentioned, should be allowed to force the risk upon those who see little or no benefit.

Not even for their own good.

A Candian study indicates that knowledge of two or more languages can play a significant role in staving off dementia.  Multilingual people in the study began showing dementia symptoms an average of 4.1 years later than their unilingual counterparts.  "How you learn the language probably doesn't make much difference; how good your grammar is probably doesn't matter." said principle investigator Ellen Bialystok. "What matters is that you have to manage two complete language systems at once."

Since previous research has found other mental workouts, like crossword puzzles, to be helpful as well, I'm now looking for a multi-lingual version of my World of Puzzles magazine....

According to this WebMD article, napping helps babies process and retain new information.  Extrapolating to all ages, maybe a good book or educational video, or a stimulating intellectual discussion, would be a profitable pre-bedtime ritual.  And maybe we should stop being so hard on students who snooze during class....

Beginning January 1st, one of my favorite comic strips, FoxTrot, will be published on Sundays only. I love FoxTrot primarily because it assumes intelligence and knowledge on the part of its readers; only the negative and condescending way Roger, the father, is portrayed dampens my enthusiasm. The more positive approach of Frazz, along with its respect for readers' intelligence and knowledge, is why that strip is now number one on my list.

But I will still miss seeing FoxTrot every day.

A break in the weather (in which the winds on the mountain are predicted to be "only" 60 mph) is expected to set off an intensive search and rescue operation for the three climbers stranded on Mt. Hood. Please pray for the success of the effort, and for the safety of the searchers. The mountain is still very dangerous, with high risk of avalanche because of the recent storms.

Some of you who read this blog know Frank James, brother of one of the climbers. All those years of teaching seminary students have made him a highly articulate spokesman for the family, as you will see if you follow the news conference links below. I know I should be just as concerned if those involved were total strangers, but the personal connection always makes it easier to realize that these faceless strangers are human beings, somebody's husband, father, brother, and son. (Listen to Frank's description of their mother in the first video; it will make you smile despite the gravity of the situation.)

Thursday's news conference
Friday's news conference
KATU home page for updates
The mothers speak (in three languages; warning: this is hard to listen to)
Saturday morning
Saturday night
Sunday morning
Sunday noon
(for later updates see Comments)

Terrorism? War? Disease? Crime? Not being able to communicate? For the places I'm likely to go, the biggest danger is none of these, but in being an Ugly American. An Ugly, Ignorant American.

Consider, for example, the experience of a friend, who recently returned from East Africa.

He was hiking, with a group of fellow tourists, under the direction of a native guide, and overheard the following conversation between the guide and an American elementary school teacher.

Teacher: What religion are you? Do you worship spirits? Ancestors?

Guide: I'm a Roman Catholic.

Teacher: Oh. Do you celebrate Christmas?

Friend: (Inarticulate noises, recognized by his father as the signs he is trying hard to stifle both laughter and rage.)

Guide (bemused, but polite): Yes, I celebrate Christmas.

Teacher: Oh. You don't celebrate Kwanzaa?

Friend: (Indications that rage is winning out over laughter. His father attempts to lead him away from the scene. Too little, too late.)

Guide (confused, but still polite): What's Kwanzaa?

Teacher (incredulous): It's an African holiday!

Friend: (In a mixture of incredulity and embarrassment that he bears the same nationality as the Teacher, erupts with a heated exposition of the history of Kwanzaa.)

I'm not sure which is more disconcerting: The ignorance of this person; that she is a teacher, and has doubtless passed her ignorance on to many innocent young children; or that telling this story has revealed other people who don't know that Kwanzaa is not of African origin, but was invented in 1966 by an American who wanted "to give a Black alternative to the existing holiday [Christmas] and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society."