Crossroads

Okay, so you've heard me gripe from time to time about schools. In the back of mind there has always been the nagging thought, "So why don't you stop complaining and actually do something about it??" So I'm here to report (go ahead and laugh at me if you wish) that I'm getting ready to make a big jump.

I'm considering home schooling.

Of course I should be more specific--I don't typically "approve" (my, doesn't that sound so condescending?) of homeschooling.  It's a fine idea in principle but my completely unscientific anecdotal studies have shown me that most people who attempt this amazing feat tend to produce inferior results.  Don't get me wrong--I'm not condemning it outright, it's just that among all the billions of people I know who have tried to homeschool their kids I've only seen three--count them three--cases where I thought the experience a success.

More often I seen children who have a hard time socializing (though that's a horribly worn-out argument against homeschooling and I don't know that I buy it) who have a hard time with the basic educational requirements. In other words, they can't read. I have the occasional family that takes the money and runs, leaving junior to be the unpaid help in the family business rather than actually making the huge commitment that proper homeschooling takes.

Sigh.  So I've been terribly suspicious of the whole idea.  Then, on top of that I'm actually quite happy with the school system (speaking in broad generalities). The teachers my kids have had in elementary and middle school have been great--hats off to them.  But ever since Grace hit high school there have been issues.  She watches more tv at school than she does at home, she's had teachers openly flirting with female students, teachers who consistently show up 10-30 minutes late for class (and by "consistently" I mean pretty much every day), not to mention those that just don't bother to teach.

Then there's the curriculum.  When I was in high school we read Shakespeare, Chaucer, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Dickens, you name it.  And then we wrote about it. Today she reads things like Jodi Picoult's 19 Minutes (about a Columbine-style school shooting).  Her junior year she finally, actually and for the first time picked up anything close to a "classic" (Macbeth) and then instead of reading it they watched a graphic movie version. Don't get me wrong, Shakespeare it meant to be seen rather than read so I don't have a gripe with that per se, it's just the lack of discussion and analysis, the falling back on television as an entertainment rather than using it to actually teach.

There's nothing wrong with modern literature as long as you can prove to me that it can teach as well as that which was produced by the masters. And I'm just not thinking that Picoult can rival the greats at any level. Not in characterization, theme, literary tools or depth. Dumb English department.

So what does this mean folks? Well I've come to a parting of the ways, a crossroad if you will.  Forget Grace, there's no hope for salvaging her senior year in the liberal arts, she's only taking a half-day next year anyway and she reads and studies enough on the side that she's doing fine with her own interest in education but Spencer? He'll be hitting ninth grade this fall and he's not someone who will pick up a book on his own to see what he's been missing in English class. I could supplement it all with my own reading requirements but his schedule doesn't permit extra work, we need to find ways to replace what isn't working with stuff that will meet his needs.

The plan is to sign him up with a homeschool program here in town then go back and sign up for the maximum number of three high school classes he's allowed to take.  That will be his biology, geometry and Spanish and I should mention that I've had no gripes with the math and science teachers there; on the contrary, I've been impressed with their quality and strength of teaching, plus I don't feel I'm competent to teach those subjects anyway.

For his PE credits he can take extra curricular sports (which he'd do anyway) and then as he's interested in studying graphic design we'll get him local art lessons and from what I've been able to deduce, they're superior in every way to the classes at the school, especially in the areas he needs (drawing).  That leaves history and English for me and between my own abilities and the online resources such as Williamsburg Academy I think we can get the job done.  He could even take classes at the University here or BYU homestudy online.  He's already proved to us that he can handle the discipline of online courses because he's just finished a series of online classes in Adobe Illustrator and has plans to next tackle Photoshop.

So what do you think? Am I crazy?  My biggest concern is making sure he's getting what he needs to be able to test at the needed levels. I don't want him to get a year or two into things and then realize he's way behind and has no chance on the SAT or ACT.  Boy that would be bad, wouldn't it?

Do you see any holes in this plan? Give it your best shot before we do something I'll later regret and irrevocably ruin my son's chances at an education.

 ***

And in related news--our friend Treg Taylor is running for the school board which I find gives me a great deal of hope.  It's not that the whole system needs to be thrown out and remade but I think he's someone who can make some crucial changes to get things back on track. Good luck Treg!

We've Got Grass, People!

Yes, it's official. I have grass showing in spots in my yard. You have no idea what that does to me.

In fact, it's got me dreaming of summer and warmer times to come which goes just fine with these posts on beauty tips:

How to cut bangs (I so needed this)
Tips for the French pedicure
And Caring for Your Heels (mine aren't quite that bad but I do need help)

And finally, this video just cracks me up. I keep wondering how the whole thing came about and it must have been that one of the guys saw the ad in the NY Times advertising the exhibit and thought, "Hey, that looks just like Jeff!" and so great comedy was born.

What cracks me up the most is the guy that stops them at the end--if he'd been smart he would have hired them right there on the spot. I can't think of a more brilliant publicity stunt than this. I would have gone to the museum that day just to see it all go down.

Retirement Should Be Retired

I love technology. I love science and engineering and all the beautiful things they've created from maps of our genes to particle accelerators to indoor plumbing and cable tv.  When I think of the 76 billion people who have made their way through this world then consider how amazing it is to live in such a time it kind of scares me but what really scares me is how our technology and our abilities tend to outstrip our wisdom.  We haven't quite figured out how we fit into this society we've created.

I've written about the new phenomenon of adolescence but as I've watched the fury of the political standoff between unions and bankrupt state governments it's occurred to me that my logic didn't go far enough--that while the 20th century created the extended childhood of the teen years it simultaneously created the other complimentary freak of nature: retirement.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that there is very little difference between adolescence and retirement.  Both are sociological oddities driven by a longer life expectancy, creating special classifications for the population complete with expectations and privileges (and backed by legislation to enforce those same privileges). Both are characterized by a general grumpiness and both serve very little purpose other than to expose the occupants to risk of laziness and deterioration if not properly navigated.

Yes, go ahead and tell me I'm the Wicked Witch of the West, I'm really okay with that but I look around at the problems that adolescence and retirement create and I shake my head.

Walk with me for a bit. . . .

I won't go back and re-explore the problems of adolescence, Mr. Gingrich has already done that admirably, but take a look at the modern retirement craze.

Where did it come from?  
The only reason we have programs such as social security and medicare is because FDR took a gamble that people wouldn't live long enough to collect on the government's bounty.  The average life expectancy was around 62 so to set a shelf at 65 seemed a safe bet.  Your odds of living that long weren't so good but it planted the seed that there was something magical about 65 (which you can't argue with, if you'd got that far you'd beat the odds and deserved a fat party). It didn't take long for the idea to grow and suddenly corporations too looked at 65 as the time for people to be slipping out quietly and the concept of retirement was born.  You had two options: you either died at your desk (a popular choice) or you left quietly to make room for someone else who wasn't as likely to suddenly drop dead on the way to the water cooler.

But as I said, technology is leaping and bounding ahead of us and people are living 20 and 30 years beyond what they were when retirement was born.  We aren't playing the odds any more, we're being strangled by them and the ponzi scheme FDR created is coming back to haunt us the longer the population survives. Add to that the psychological issues of this archaic, man-made threshold: now we have this strange idea that come 65 everything is going to change and suddenly we'll be back to how it was when we were young (catch that allusion to adolescence? I'm hitting you over the head with it), without any problems or responsibilities. It will be better, actually, because now we'll have money from our pensions/social security/savings and lots of senior discounts at the movie theaters. And don't get me started on that whole "fixed" income preoccupation. Talk about redundancy. No one I know has unlimited resources--we ALL have fixed incomes--what we really get with retirement is a fat old sense of entitlement.

Entitlement Is a Form of Heart Disease
What on earth gives us the right, after millions of years of living and working and struggling for survival, to think that we suddenly deserve a rest? What makes us special from the generations before us that had to continue to earn their living and make themselves valuable to their fellow citizens right up until the day they died?

I think we've forgotten that first and foremost, work is not a punishment. It's a gift that allows us to find purpose and meaning for our lives and once we take that out of the equation we're not only worth less we're less happy.  If you believe in God then you'll agree that work is also a commandment. "By the sweat of thy brow" and all that--I don't recall the Bible saying anything about "By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou labor . . . unless of course thou canst collect a sweet pension and finally get to all that fishing and traveling thou hast been dying to do, because really now--you deserve it." Or "thou hast deserved it." Whatever.

Purposeful Work, Not Vacations, Are the Cure
If nothing else, the idea of retirement is selfish to the core. No one beyond childhood who is mentally and physically capable should have a period of life where they expect to live off of someone else's efforts, be it through pensions, medicare or rich relations--I wouldn't allow my children to expect to live off of me once they were capable of providing for themselves and it's just as wrong for me to expect it of them (or of my government) when I'm still alive and kicking. Where is our self-reliance when we need it most? 

If you can save up enough to be able to stop working then fine, go that route. Live long and prosper.  But I don't know that even then you'll be happy. Most people I know who have been able to earn enough money to quit working have learned the psychological and physical benefits of work which is probably why we still see Bill Gates at the helm of Microsoft.  The people I admire the most aren't the ones who are hanging out at the old fishing hole, they're the ones who have worked hard, collected wisdom and then find meaningful ways of helping others who are following behind.  Just look at how many people did their best work after the age of 65 . . . Picasso . . . Winston Churchill . . . Moses . . . Sean Connery.  Seems to me that I'd rather be the flame burning brightest at the end rather than the one that splutters out then sits around complaining about the weather and kids these days.

I'm blessed to live in a time when I can--assuming I take good care of myself--expect to live another 40 or 50 years. Not only can I expect I'll live long but, thanks to modern medicine, I can generally be free of pain and disease if my genetics are good to me.  For me to assume that the last 20 or 30 years of my life are a freebie is not only selfish and wrong but a waste--the fewer years I have left, the more precious they are.  What I do with them is more important than ever.

Where Am I?

Let's see . . . where have I been? Well, most recently I've been scrambling for a last-minute prom dress.  No, not for me silly.  For Grace. The good news is that she's got a date but the bad news is that it cost me $20 in overnight shipping. And I mean that in the nicest, happiest-mom sort of way.

She has beautiful taste though--see her selection? It's a vintage 1950s dress from Etsy that will fit her perfectly (sigh . . . to have a figure that size again) and will go great with her strawberry-blond locks.

I've also been reading like crazy.  A few books on ancient history (go ahead and ask me about the Sumerians--I'm all over it) then True Grit (loved the movie) and The Eagle of the Ninth (ditto) and now I'm working on a biography of Napoleon by Paul Johnson.  If you're ever into history Paul Johnson is the way to go--I'm just hoping he gets his biography on Socrates finished before he . . . uh . . . shuffles off this mortal coil (he's about 105 I think).

The snow is showing signs that it may not be a permanent fixture so everyone is in good spirits. We ran up to the cabin during spring break last week to check out the snowmaching and enjoy the sunshine and got a bonus in a gorgeous display of the northern lights.

And I've been knitting.  Finished this Rosebud cardigan from Berroco's free pattern stash and started on this adorable Carli ribbed cardigan from Cocoknits (which has the most beautiful sweater patterns). Love how you can adjust the button hole to different places, including no button then belt it.

Oh, and I've been consuming very large quantities of hot chocolate.  Lots.  Here are some new recipes that I've been meaning to try for the stuff:

Thick Hot Chocolate (i.e. "fondue for breakfast")
Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate
Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate

Or maybe I'll try baking:
Brownies in a Crockpot
Lemon Curd in the Microwave
Or Vanilla Pear Jam (doesn't that just sound amazing?)

The other thing I'm toying with is this quilt-block pattern creator where you can upload a photo and turn it into a quilt block pattern.  I've uploaded a bunch of photos from our India trip last year (I've been feeling nostalgic as the anniversary of the trip has approached--we left a year ago today) and think that making a quilt top from the pixelated photos would be pretty darn cool. Whose with me?