A Reluctantly Negative Review

I love Gary Cooper in Sergeant York, I always enjoy Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, and I was intrigued a few years back by the trailers for the Adam Sandler movie, Mr. Deeds. So, I was happy to discover Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town at the library recently. Gary Cooper plays the title role, a small town nice guy who inherits a fortune. With all the movie had going for it, it sadly turned out to be boring in parts and just not that fun to watch. I didn't care for the pacing, and the happy ending of the romance was too fast to be credible. Still, I'd rather have spent part of an evening on this movie then on filling my head with Sandler movie humor. (How's that for faint praise?)

Homemade Soup Just Tastes Better

I got ambitious today and made cream of broccoli soup myself using the recipe in the red-checked Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. No cans anywhere in sight. My only cheat was using bouillon instead of making my own chicken broth. OK, I didn't churn my own butter, either. It tasted sooooo good. The only reason to go with canned cream of whatever soup is convenience (not a small consideration, that).

Sorry to see it go

The Rocky Mountain News just announced that it will publish its final edition tomorrow. This is sudden. Just this week, someone from the Rocky Mountain News called our home to see if we wanted to subscribe to either the Rocky Mountain News or the Colorado Springs Gazette. I'm sad to see a newspaper fold when it has been around for 150 years and has stood as competition to the Denver Post.

Why haven't newspapers morphed yet in a way that allows them to make a profit while using the internet? Most of the people who would read newspapers seriously are probably using the internet--either mainly or as a supplement--to find their news these days. I don't need the TV guide (no TV), my supermarket ads are online, and I don't even miss the comics page now that I have lolcats to view. Classified ads are also no longer going to be a great revenue generator; we have craigslist. I have noticed that many newspapers websites are getting better at forcing me to glance at their advertising. Good for them! I should have to do something to get my news. The only news I would expect to get completely for free would be indoctrination (and that, I'd rather not pay for! Hence my unwillingness to subscribe to a paper to help pay for editorials...) or information from government organizations complying with their public service obligation (which isn't really free since we pay for it through taxes).

Free museum visit today

This morning we spent a couple of hours at the Museum of Outdoor Art in Englewood, Colorado. Not only was it free, but it kept 4 children ages 2-5 quite entertained for the short time they were there. First we visited the indoor gallery which currently displays a collection of paintings all incorporating the same five objects: a spool of thread, a mirror, a glass of water, a yellow moth, and a bone. My favorite was the triptych entitled "Origins" that touched on the controversies surrounding the theory of evolution; the middle frame showed a little girl about to swing blindly at a big pinata in the shape of a triceratops. Then we entered the new multimedia exhibit "Color of Sound" which combined unusual music with changing colors of light projected through the white cloth walls. Since we had the exhibit to ourselves, the children got to dance and pretend to be fish, birds, and plants when the atmospheric light suited such actions. Lastly, we looked at some of the outdoor sculptures; however, the children started to climb on them, so that ended our cultural outing. If you're ever in the southern Denver area, I recommend this museum for a half-day excursion.

Homeschool carnival is up

The Homeschool Carnival has been posted at "Consent of the Governed". It's named the "Stimulus" edition. As usual, there are lots of good submissions.

Clothes and the Homeschooler

We currently plan to homeschool our children for at least a few years. One of the criticisms of homeschoolers is that they are sheltered from the world and not like their peers. Of course, that's also one of the benefits of homeschooling. (Visit my local high school, and you'll sympathize.) While we wish to protect our children from feeling like they must assimilate to the many destructive trends in public school student bodies, we don't want them to end up socially awkward. Well, at least no more than they would be with us two introverts for parents....

One of the most obvious reasons for which children are judged wanting by their peers and society at large is their appearance, specifically their clothes. At present, my children are perfectly happy wearing whatever gifts or castoffs relatives and friends send. The four year old would just as soon wear the same outfit for a week, and everyone else is just fine with that. However, this pleasant state of affairs will not last. Based on my own experience, regular vicious insults about clothes will begin around fifth grade and possibly continue all the way through high school. I feel I would be an unkind parent to cause--either on purpose or ignorantly--my children to wear clothing that will result in their being singled out for ridicule when they interact outside the home.

As an aside, I have been so disappointed with the inordinate focus on clothes I've seen by some teenagers in my extended family and at church. When you move from a poverty-stricken country to the USA, it seems so trivial and cruel that teenagers here mock and discount others based on whether they dress according to some fickle standard. Americans in general have a variety of clean clothes, right? How much luckier are they than half the world!

Contrasting approaches to clothing children were showcased recently in the Jones-Martinson episode of "Wife Swap" (I posted about that here.). The public school employee mother dressed her daughters in designer clothes (not exactly modest ones, either); the unschooling mother looked like she let her boys wear whatever suited them. The boys looked inappropriately dressed for their family's publicity photo; yes, they are boys, but they still could have worn something better than T-shirts. Where on the spectrum of clothing awareness and appearance do I want our family to be?

I take my primary guidance from scripture and wise leaders and authors:

Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim. ~Jane Austen

If one's life is simple, contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness. Having few desires, feeling satisfied with what you have, is very vital: satisfaction with just enough food, clothing, and shelter to protect yourself from the elements. And finally there is an intense delight in abandoning faulty states of mind and in cultivating helpful ones in meditation. ~Dalai Lama

For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?...If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. ~James 2:2-4,8-9
And I did cause that the women should spin, and toil, and work, and work all manner of fine linen, yea, and cloth of every kind, that we might clothe our nakedness; and thus we did prosper in the land—thus we did have continual peace in the land for the space of twenty and two years. ~Mosiah 10:5
They rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing; and they persecute the meek and the poor in heart, because in their pride they are puffed up. ~2 Nephi 28:13

My goal will be to have our family dressed attractively, modestly and simply. I want to avoid extremes of faddishness, sloppiness, and antiquatedness (there's nothing inherently more modest about a skirt than a pair of pants, and we're not Amish :) ). The people whose appearance I have most admired dressed nicely but with only moderate attention to fashion's vagaries. Their clothes were generally clean, well-matched, flattering, and yet not a focus of their lives; instead these people tended to use their valuable time to learn and to serve. This approach to clothing is what I choose to emulate and teach our children. I hope it will help my children find acceptance and appreciation for what lies inside them when they venture outside our homeschool environment.

Hit the road, Jack!

If you're going to climb a mountain, you'd better be expecting to get yourself back down, too. Apparently, short-sighted hikers have been climbing Pike's Peak in Colorado then calling 911 to ask for rides down. This is a mountain that you can drive to the top of! Why don't they call a taxi instead of 911?

In what is a thoroughly-justifiable move by Colorado Springs City, they are going to start charging hikers who call 911 to get down off Pikes Peak.

Autism-Folic Acid Supplementation Link "Highly Likely"

For years now, I've suspected that the rise in autism, at least the higher-functioning kind, is connected to the increase in folic acid. The vaccine-autism connection theory never seemed very credible to me--the statistics didn't fit--and it's been debunked repeatedly, though it remains controversial. What I've read of folate's role in brain development, the larger than normal number of neural connections in autistic children, and the efficacy in some autism cases of folic acid supplementation has caused me to think that the global increase in prenatal folic acid intake can plausibly be tied to the increase in autism cases.

Because I have a nephew with autism who is now mainstreamed and no history of neural tube defects, I have consciously chosen to take prenatal vitamins sporadically to lessen my suspected risk for autism in my children. I already consume orange juice; folic acid fortified breakfast cereal, flour, bread, pasta, and tortillas; and a variety of fruits, vegetables, meats and nuts. It just seems like overkill to give my body 800 mcg (seriously, that's how much folic acid is in my Kroger prenatal vitamins) more folic acid everyday when 400 mcg is the amount deemed necessary to cut the risk of a neural tube defects (600 mcg for pregnant women). However, if I lived off diet soda and fish and chips, I don't doubt that I would need a prenatal vitamin everyday to have a chance at growing a healthy baby in me.

Because of the proof that folate lessens the chances of a neural tube defect, I do sometimes wonder if I'm doing the right thing by not popping a vitamin pill every day. Then I come across a scientific article like this one in Medical Hypotheses showing that I'm not completely off my rocker. Here is an excerpt from the article's summary:

Summary The inverse association between maternal folate status and incidence of infants born with neural tube defects (NTD’s) was recognized over twenty years ago and led the US health agencies in the early 1990s to recommend that women of childbearing age consume 400 mcg of folic acid each day. The FDA followed by mandating that certain foods be fortified with folic acid and this has resulted in a significant enhancement of maternal folate status to levels that are often difficult to otherwise achieve naturally. At least one study indicates that this has decreased the incidence of NTD’s. However, this same time period directly coincides with what many feel is the apparent beginning and continuous increase in the prevalence of Autism and related Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD’s) in the US. [I wasn't just imagining the coincidence!] Are these similar time frames of changes in maternal folate status and possible Autism prevalence a random event or has improved maternal (and fetal) folate status during pregnancy played a role? It is not only plausible but highly likely. A particular polymorphic form to a key enzyme required to activate folate for methylation in neurodevelopment, 5- methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), demonstrates reduced activity under low or normal folate levels but normal activity under conditions of higher folate nutritional status. A consequence of the presence of the polymorphic form of this enzyme during normal or reduced folate status are higher plasma homocysteine levels than noncarriers and the combination of these factors have been shown in several studies to result in an increase rate of miscarriage via thrombotic events. However, the incidence of hyperhomocysteinemia in the presence of the polymorphism is reduced under the common condition of enhanced folate status and thereby masks the latent adverse effects of the presence of this enzyme form during pregnancy. Of great importance is that this polymorphism, although common in the normal population, is found in significantly higher frequency in Autisic individuals. It is hypothesized here that the enhancement of maternal folate status before and during pregnancy in the last 15 years has altered natural selection by increasing survival rates during pregnancy of infants possessing the MTHFR C677T polymorphism, via reduction in hyperhomocysteinemia associated with this genotype and thereby miscarriage rates. ["Natural selection" is certainly sad in this context.] This also points directly to an increased rate of births of infants with higher postnatal requirements for folic acid needed for normal methylation during this critical neurodevelopmental period. If these numbers have increased then so have the absolute number of infants that after birth fail to maintain the higher folate status experienced in utero thus leading to an increased number of cases of developmental disorders such as Autism. [Intriguing--had my nephew been on large doses of folate as a toddler, would he have not developed an autism spectrum disorder?]

I am emphatically not saying that women should never take prenatal vitamins. And if they have had a child already with a neural tube defect, I'm all for them taking lots of folic acid! On the other hand, if a woman is already getting needed nutrients from her diet, she might want to consider whether she's willing to mess around with nature by taking regular vitamin megadoses. After all, up to 50% of pregnancies end in miscarriage--there's got to be a good reason for that.

Update: Please see my updated post on this subject at http://petticoatgovernment.blogspot.com/2011/11/my-updated-theory-on-autism.html.

!! Further update!! : A recent study out of Norway, where they do not enrich the food supply with folate, indicates that taking folic acid just before and after conception markedly decreases the probability that the child will have autism. In light of it, I revise everything I've ever said on this issue to include a recommendation that women trying to conceive take folic acid supplements from 4 weeks pre-conception to 8-weeks post-conception. Here's the abstract for the Norway study on the JAMA website:

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT | METHODS | RESULTS | COMMENT | AUTHOR INFORMATION | REFERENCES

Importance  Prenatal folic acid supplements reduce the risk of neural tube defects in children, but it has not been determined whether they protect against other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Objective  To examine the association between maternal use of prenatal folic acid supplements and subsequent risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) (autistic disorder, Asperger syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder–not otherwise specified [PDD-NOS]) in children.

Design, Setting, and Patients  The study sample of 85 176 children was derived from the population-based, prospective Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). The children were born in 2002-2008; by the end of follow-up on March 31, 2012, the age range was 3.3 through 10.2 years (mean, 6.4 years). The exposure of primary interest was use of folic acid from 4 weeks before to 8 weeks after the start of pregnancy, defined as the first day of the last menstrual period before conception. Relative risks of ASDs were estimated by odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CIs in a logistic regression analysis. Analyses were adjusted for maternal education level, year of birth, and parity.

Main Outcome Measure  Specialist-confirmed diagnosis of ASDs.

Results  At the end of follow-up, 270 children in the study sample had been diagnosed with ASDs: 114 with autistic disorder, 56 with Asperger syndrome, and 100 with PDD-NOS. In children whose mothers took folic acid, 0.10% (64/61 042) had autistic disorder, compared with 0.21% (50/24 134) in those unexposed to folic acid. The adjusted OR for autistic disorder in children of folic acid users was 0.61 (95% CI, 0.41-0.90). No association was found with Asperger syndrome or PDD-NOS, but power was limited. Similar analyses for prenatal fish oil supplements showed no such association with autistic disorder, even though fish oil use was associated with the same maternal characteristics as folic acid use.

Conclusions and Relevance  Use of prenatal folic acid supplements around the time of conception was associated with a lower risk of autistic disorder in the MoBa cohort. Although these findings cannot establish causality, they do support prenatal folic acid supplementation.

ADDENDUM: I've recently discovered that around half the USA has a genetic mutation that makes it hard for them to actually use the folic acid that is put in white flour, breakfast cereal, and most multivitamins. To bypass the problem, it's better to ingest L-methylfolate, which is exactly the form that our bodies use. On average, it is better for increasing our blood folate status and doesn't mask B-12 deficiency. And get the word out so that food producers will start putting L-methylfolate in their products instead of plain folic acid.

Notice that in the Norway study above, autism went down by half in the group that took folic acid. Maybe it would have gone away almost completely if they'd given all the mothers L-methylfolate, seeing as around half the women likely couldn't use folic acid very well.

Final Update: Here's a link to a letter to the editor that a friend and I co-authored where we discuss the possible connections between folic acid overuse, inattentive-type ADHD, and autism spectrum disorders. It was published in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition in June of 2016.

[Edited Jan. 11, 2018: OK, not fully finished with this topic. I think that proper nutritional support of the two enzymatic pathways from homocysteine to methionine is crucial in helping with autism spectrum disorders. The first pathway uses folate and vitamin B12; unfortunately the folic acid and cyanocobalamin forms of those vitamins appear to be counterproductive in excess, so avoid ingesting them regularly in high amounts, instead eating the forms of B12 and folate that occur naturally in foods. The second pathway uses glycine betaine and zinc; glycine betaine is easy to get out of plant cells by boiling it out, so I suggest regularly eating soup made with foods high in glycine betaine. My family now puts some glycine betaine in with the family beverages and it appears to have had a calming effect in our children who showed signs of Asperger's and ODD.]

"Most Unusual Chili"

We went to a chili cookoff tonight. Very filling! I decided to try a different kind of recipe. As I like curry these days, I located a curry chili recipe on the internet. It was "Indo-texan Curry Chili" from epicurious.com. I made a few substitutions (lime leaves instead of lemon peel, Patak's red curry paste in place of the cumin, coriander, and curry powder) and added a can of kidney beans. It was fairly mild and quite yummy. I even won an award for having the most unusual chili. (Truthfully, there was a Thai chili that was even more unusual than mine.) I wonder what kind of twist I can do on chili next time...right now I'm thinking of "Borscht Chili"....

Freedom to Criticize

Journalist Anna Politkovskaya was brutally gunned down in Moscow in 2006. She was a prominent Kremlin critic and was murdered on Vladimir Putin's birthday--one has to wonder whether it was done as a favor to him? Putin brushed aside her murder as insignificant when it happened, and the government prosecution has apparently made major mistakes in preparing their case against the three suspects that were eventually identified. The suspects were allegedly low-level plotters who helped the gunman, and they were just acquitted today according to this Associated Press article. The aftermath of Politkovskaya's slaying has been more of the same:

President Dmitry Medvedev was elected last year after vowing to fight what he called the "legal nihilism" that infects Russia. But he has not been able to halt the killing of activists and those who criticize government officials.

Last month, a gunman with a silencer shot and killed a prominent human rights lawyer who often clashed with authorities, as well as a young investigative journalist working for Novaya Gazeta, the same newspaper where Politkovskaya worked.

Masha Lipman of the Moscow Carnegie Center think tank says the Kremlin has done too little to discourage these apparently political slayings.

"The leadership should be held responsible for the atmosphere of lawlessness, and the atmosphere of impunity," she said.

Add this to the list of reasons why I'm glad to live here. When is the last time you heard of a reporter in the U.S.A. being slain for criticizing political leaders? Leaders here are expected to be criticized and to take it. Even President Obama is now getting some criticism from the media despite their bias for him during the election season. As it should be. No leader should be given a pass on everything they do, no matter how much we may like them. There just isn't anyone out there that perfect.

Random Thoughts

A South Asian man is suing for being singled out too many times in what are supposed to be random bag checks in New York City. I guess by the 21st time, he was pretty sure he was being targeted. After all, according to his calculations, you're more likely to be hit by lightning twice than be searched as many times as he has been.

Which makes me wonder, how exactly do you carry out a true random check? Do you really search the backpack of the three-year-old tagging along with her aged grandmother as they rush to catch a train? It makes more sense to let them go by, even if they were the nth person, and stop the young male who looks as though he might be related to one of the 9/11 hijackers. I sympathize with the guy being frustrated by so many checks, but I don't think he should win his lawsuit. That would have a chilling effect on policemen being allowed to actually use their own judgment sometimes.

Some recent health studies

Recent studies show that apple juice can delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease, and that heavy smokers and drinkers get Alzheimer's disease years before those who are not heavy smokers or drinkers.

So, yet again, fruit and tobacco and alcohol avoidance are shown to contribute to a healthier life. I love the Word of Wisdom.

And lest I appear unfairly selective in my roundup of diet-related articles from the web today, here's an article saying that coffee drinking cuts risks of stroke in women. However, the benefit is only for healthy women; smoking, having high blood pressure, diabetes, or high cholesterol neutralized the coffee effect. Also, note that the benefit comes from something in coffee besides the caffeine; Mountain Dew and iced tea won't provide a woman with a similar benefit. The lead author of the study states: “Antioxidants in coffee lower inflammation and improve blood vessel function." I'll stick with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, legumes, meats, poultry, fish, and chocolate for my antioxidants, thank you! Even if I weren't LDS, I think I would hesitate to acquire a messy habit like coffee drinking.

Good thing they didn't do it a day earlier...

Making the decision to "pull the plug" on life support of a loved one must be very difficult, especially when people can come out of comas for no discernable reason. This occurred recently in California. Mike Connelly had been in a coma for four days; just as they were about to take him off life support, he began responding to his name. Apparently, he is now on his way to a full recovery.

Charming

Apparently, snake charming has been illegal for a while in India in order to prevent snake abuse. Yet somehow there are still 800,000 snake charmers in India, according to this article.

Moderation in Reading Instruction

Based on some of my earlier posts, it might seem as though I'm so into "phonics" instruction that I would eschew allowing children to recognize words by sight. That is not the case. First I will sound out letters and letter combinations with them to assist them in approaching a new word. I'll explain briefly whether a letter has an unexpected sound in the word at hand. Then I'll make sure they say the word correctly before we move on. If they happen to memorize the word, then great! It is counterproductive to require everything be sounded out every time if one is to develop reading speed. On the other hand, not explicitly teaching children the connection between letters and their sounds and the logic of how words are formed from various letter combinations seems to hinder many children in learning to read accurately in the first place, be the speed fast or slow. That's why I'm such a phonics supporter.

Nor am I the type to teach my children various obscure phonetic symbols. Long and short vowel sounds symbols are as far as I will go in that direction for the foreseeable future (who knows, they might decide to be teenage philologists ;) ).

Ignorance of Pregnancy Causes Poor Prenatal Care

According to a Medical News Today article, the top reason women do not get prenatal care is that they don't realize they are pregnant. Michigan State University researchers found that if women simply had pregnancy tests at hand, they were more likely to suspect possible pregnancies and test themselves. Knowing of a pregnancy early gives a woman more time to stop any baby-harming behaviors before they can harm her forming child:

"Telling a woman she is pregnant will often cause her to immediately stop or cut down on smoking, drinking and other behaviors that can hurt the baby," [Dr. Mary Nettleman] said. "The problem is that many women do not recognize they are pregnant for several weeks, which is all it takes for the heart and brain to form. Earlier pregnancy recognition could have a huge impact on the health of newborns in this country."

Now I feel justified in having a pregnancy test from the dollar store stashed away in a drawer at all times. Before I felt like I was just indulging in wishful thinking! I love babies. :)

Juxtaposition

The top headline on Google News for the subject "homeschooling" right now is "Homeschooling: America's Hidden Breeding Ground for Conservative Ideology" on www.alternet.org. Soon after seeing that headline, I was reading Joanne Jacob's website and read in a recent post that a professor is saying students today are unfit for a college education because of faults "in their 'educational backgrounds, analytical thinking, quantitative skills, reading abilities, willingness to work, and their attitudes concerning the educational process.'"

Seeing these two items together made me wonder whether analytical thinking, quantitative skills, reading abilities and good study attitudes are considered conservative these days? After all, I think most homeschoolers will tell you that they doubt the public schools would do an adequate job in developing these attributes in their children. Hence, the homeschooling by both conservatives and liberals.

Once I was able to get the alternet.org website to load, though, I found out from the comments that the article itself (written originally in French and actually titled "American Families That Defy the Public School") wasn't focused on conservative zealots isolating their children after all. It seemed a fair depiction of both rightwing and leftwing homeschoolers' motivations and circumstances. It's just alternet.org, I guess, that felt they needed to scare readers about parents teaching their own children *gasp* their own values (Merriam-Webster's definition of conservative: "tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or insitutions; traditional; marked by moderation or caution; marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners").

Almost makes me wish we had a TV just to catch this one...but not quite...

I just read a summary of an interesting episode of the reality TV show where mothers swap homes for two weeks. Normally, I would avoid anything having to do with a show entitled "Wife Swap", but the last episode of the show was about a family in Colorado (where I live) and an unschooling family in southern California (where I used to live). The mother of the Colorado family is very concerned with appearances, has her daughters heavily scheduled (to the point where they rarely have relaxed time with their father), and works for the public school system. It's very interesting to see her reaction to the unschooling family:

“Your approach to learning is an excuse to be lazy,” Kerry tells the Martinsons. Harrison and Riley are going [at her behest] to real school with a real teacher. Lee, a college dropout, has to take an accounting class at the community college to show how wrong it is to avoid college. Also, they’ve got to declutter and clean the house.

“You’re an overcritical nag,” Lee tells Kerry. The kids aren’t very excited about going to school. “It’s boring and a waste of time,” Riley says. The boys can’t keep up with the academics. Lee has to be more involved in the boys’ activities, and he has to take them to gymnastics. Lee skips class, and Kerry confronts him. “Don’t raise your voice,” he warns her. “I can’t imagine that Lee knows so much that he can’t go to class and learn something,” she says.

Of course the boys in the unschooling family had difficulty keeping up with the academics when put into regular school with no preparation. Unschoolers don't exactly follow the local district curriculum. I personally plan to require more from my children as I homeschool, but after reading this summary, I'd much rather be a child in the unschooling family. They seem happy and relaxed and hardly stupid (see the unschooling mom's defense of her sons here). The Colorado daughters, on the other hand, already believe firmly that they need their makeup and designer clothes because they will be judged on their appearance--sounds like a recipe for eating disorders and materialism.

Narration Trepidation

I find intriguing the idea of using narration in place of much written work for younger children. Narration is one of the most important methods in the Charlotte Mason approach to education. Recently I checked out A Charlotte Mason Companion from the local library; it contains these inspiring words about narration on page 114:

We are living in an information age. Today's children are exposed to much information, but they come away with little knowledge. Why? First, most schools use books that are purely factual. Such books can actually be an obstacle to acquiring knowledge because they are not the kind of book children naturally "take to,"or can narrate from. Children need books written in literary language to narrate from. Secondly, children are persons, not parrots. Workbooks obligate children to parrot back information. Knowledge is not attained through these means because the child really hasn't narrated (or thought the ideas through and made them his own). Narrating invites children to meditate, that is, to think ideas through to their conclusion. Charlotte Mason observed that what the child digs for himself becomes his own possession. Narration develops the power of self-expression and forces the child to use his own mind and form his own judgment.

I was always a good little parrot of a student. I excelled at worksheets, multiple choice exams, and fill-in-the-blank questions. But I never liked or felt I did well at creative writing and essay assignments. My powers of deliberation and self-expression were limited for most of my youth. I was told once by one of my professors that she and her co-teachers in a colloquium course had discussed together the problem of how "to get [me] to think." Now I know that teenagers in general are rarely accused of being "deep thinkers", but surely with my adolescent academic performance in recalling and synthesizing facts, I should have developed some intellectual curiosity and meditation skills before I reached the university! I want a better early education for my children than I had. I want them to be able to sift ideas for themselves and clearly express their conclusions before they become adults; if narration will help me develop these abilities in my children, I will implement it as a central method in our homeschool.

However, in spite of all the positive good that narration is said to accomplish, I fear that my children will struggle with narration, leading me to try to force them to do it, and they will end up hating narration and, by extension, Mommy's teaching. My oldest child, now 4-1/2 years old, was quite slow to begin speaking because she was in a trilingual environment. She still has difficulty composing answers to questions like "What did you do today?", so I worry that she in particular will not be able to narrate effectively. I was halfway relieved from my narration-related anxiety to read on page 116 of A Charlotte Mason Companion that Charlotte Mason said "formal telling should be required of children only after the age of six." My daughter should be much better at coherent sentences a year and a half from now. (Poor first children--we parents can get so hyper about their development!)

Readers, do you use narration with your children? At what ages/ability levels did you start to do it formally? How do you avoid narration becoming something your children dislike?

It met my expectations.

I never really intended to see The Golden Compass. At least, I was not ever going to go out of my way to see it. And I certainly wasn't going to spend money to see it. But dh found it at the library today and checked it out, so I ended up watching it at last. The movie version met my expectations--great special effects, excellent acting, yet still a lame story pushing the author's annoying agenda ("I can't believe in God, so let's get's rid of the Kingdom of Heaven and replace it with a Republic of Heaven."-paraphrased from quotes on www.hisdarkmaterials.org.).

About the time they were producing The Golden Compass, I came across the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman and decided to read it since I had once heard a girl say they were some of her favorite books. By the time I finished them, I had to wonder why she liked them so much, for she seemed well-read and faithful. Not only does Mr. Pullman amuse himself by killing off God and obliterating the soul after death, the trilogy doesn't even tell a satisfying story.

The trilogy's plot meanders all over the place. Philip Pullman has said repeatedly "There are no rules." Apparently, he feels that way about fantasy writing, too, and in a genre where authors generally put great effort into building internally consistent worlds, Philip Pullman gives us a trilogy that hops dimensions at his will (despite a first book in which such dimension travel is so difficult that it takes a young boy's murder to accomplish it) and is full of illogical and unexplained actions and circumstances. Also, I found His Dark Materials guilty of having some very tedious parts, introducing new and rather irrelevant characters at odd places, killing off some characters in shocking (for the sake of shock) ways, and reaching a climax that is insipid* and not worth all the pages that led up to it. I really liked his Ruby in the Smoke, but I think in that book, he actually did follow rules because he was stuck in Victorian England. How unfortunate that the author espouses the philosophy that "[w]e don't need lists of rights and wrongs" because he would write better books if he paid more attention to some basic guidelines for fantasy writers. At the very least, he could give the readers a happy ending! Why does he think we're reading "fantasy" in the first place?

*Spoiler: The climax of the trilogy is that young Lyra and Will (ooh, I wonder if his name is significant!) share a sort-of romantic moment in a grove where she feeds him berries. It is obviously a parallel to the Garden of Eden story, yet while the incident is short and childish, their new *love* somehow results in saving everyone in all dimensions...until death, of course, at which point all souls will happily disintegrate. As for Lyra and Will with their oh-so-significant budding love, they quickly experience a wrenching farewell when cruel necessity parts them forever.

Report on Colorado's Teacher Retention Policies

This 2008 report excerpt from the National Council on Teacher Quality is interesting to me since I live in Colorado and favor policies that will promote retention of effective teachers:

How is Colorado Faring?

Area 1: D- [Note: Most grades in the report are low. Only one A was given out of 151 grades.]
Identifying effective teachers

Colorado’s policies regarding the identification of effective teachers are sorely lacking. The state has only two of the three necessary elements for the development of a student- and teacher-level longitudinal data system, and Colorado’s requirements regarding teacher evaluations are too ambiguous to ensure the use of objective measures such as standardized tests as evidence of student learning. Colorado’s probationary period for new teachers is just three years, and the state does not require any meaningful process to evaluate cumulative effectiveness in the classroom before teachers are awarded tenure.

Area 2: C-
Retaining effective teachers

Colorado requires that all new teachers receive mentoring. The state’s requirements for a nonprobationary license are more reasonable than those in many states; however, Colorado does not base advancement on specific evidence of teacher effectiveness. The state gives districts authority for how teachers are paid and has differential pay for teachers working in high-needs schools, but its other policies regarding teacher compensation need improvement. Colorado does not support retention bonuses, compensation for relevant prior work experience, differential pay for teachers working in shortage subject areas or performance pay. In addition, the state provides only a defined benefit pension plan for teachers. While Colorado offers teachers leaving the system more flexibility than most states, its pension policies are not fair to all teachers. Further, retirement benefits are determined by a formula that is not neutral, meaning that pension wealth does not accumulate uniformly for each year a teacher works.

Area 3: B
Exiting ineffective teachers

Although Colorado requires new teachers to be formally evaluated only once a year, it does require that teachers, regardless of employment status, who receive an unsatisfactory evaluation be placed on an improvement plan and then made eligible for dismissal if they do not improve. Commendably, the state also requires that all teachers pass all required subject-matter tests as a condition of initial licensure.

Overall Performance: C-

I am surprised that there is no additional compensation provided for relevant prior work experience. Surely that should be a factor in setting teacher pay if we want more to attract and retain more experienced teachers in Colorado.

Beautiful Photo Montage

This photo montage depicting Jesus Christ's life was originally a photo exhibit displayed at the LDS Temple in Mesa, Arizona.

Try contributing on a more local level first...

Val Kilmer is thinking of running for governor of New Mexico. He said,

"I'm just looking for ways to be contributive," Kilmer told The Associated Press on Thursday. "And if that ends up being where I can make a substantial contribution, then I'll run."

This is the guy whose most memorable characteristic--to me and my dh, at least--is his propensity to get in at least one French kiss in every movie. And his only "elected office" to date is as a King of Bacchus at Mardi Gras. I really think the guy should start a little smaller than governor in his efforts to be "contributive"...try city council, school board, state legislature, even community organizer first.

Affinity Fraud

"Con man" is short for "confidence man". To be an effective swindler, one generally needs to gain the confidence of one's marks. One effective shortcut to interpersonal trust is to share--even if only apparently--the same group identity as the people whose confidence you want. The North American Securities Administrators Association has posted a warning about affinity fraud:

In a world of increasing complexity, many people feel the need for a short-hand way of knowing who to trust. This is especially true when it comes to investing money. Unfamiliar with how our financial markets work, too many people don’t know how to thoroughly research an investment and its salesperson. So, many fall prey to affinity group fraud in which a con artist claims to be a member of the same ethnic, religious, career or community-based group.

"You can trust me," says the scamster, "because I’m like you. We share the same background and interests. And I can help you make money."

Group affinity can cause people to be led into bad investments by a coreligionist, such as Bernie Maddoff or Val Southwick. Or by someone of the same racial or ethnic group, like Filipina Liza Bautista, Hispanic Lazaro Rodriguez or African-American Ronald Randolph. There are even more examples at www.crimes-and-persuasions.com.

LDS Church leaders have warned Mormons about affinity fraud, saying that they should keep three principles firmly in mind when investing money:

“First, avoid unnecessary debt, especially consumer debt; second, before investing, seek advice from a qualified and licensed financial advisor; and third, be wise.”

Sounds like good advice to me.

Since knowledge is power, you'd better pay attention to the knowledge provider's bias!

For an interesting example of media bias, compare how CNN treated Sarah Palin's religiosity with its current treatment of Barack Obama's proclamation of faith. Regarding Sarah Palin, CNN published an article intimating that Palin was a religious zealot who was trying to hide her religious extremism just to get elected. When Obama openly says he has listened to and heeded the beckon of God's spirit, CNN just reprints his words with no commentary.

I'm really worried about people who think any news organization or talk show host is giving them an unbiased report or analysis of events. It is essential that all realize that everyone has conscious and unconscious biases and then evaluate any information they receive in light of the source's apparent and probable biases.

Fun games for preschoolers

Besides our all-time favorite preschool website, starfall.com, we also enjoy uptoten.com. It has mazes, coloring games (including one where they can mix primary colors to get other colors and tints), puzzles, and memory games. My daughter wants me to get off the computer now, so that she can play on uptoten.com (now that I've reminded her of its existence by reading my blog post aloud).

Watch out for Klingons at the 7-Eleven!

A man armed with a "batleth" robbed a 7-Eleven store early this morning in Colorado Springs, Colorado. What was his logic in choosing that as his weapon? Or is he actually a Klingon? He was wearing a mask....

Voir Dire

Yesterday I was summoned for jury duty. The courthouse had scheduled over 10 jury trials to start on Monday, so they called in over 200 people for jury duty. I was randomly chosen to be in a group of 30 potential jurors, out of which they would choose 12 jurors to hear a two-day felony case.

The voir dire process was quite amusing to watch from the juror side (I'd already seen it a few times from the court employee side). "Voir dire" means basically "tell the truth". Potential jurors are sworn to tell the truth and then questioned about possible conflicts or biases they have that might make them unable to be a fair factfinder in the trial at hand. One woman said she was against the way our penal system works, and a man said that it was ludicrous that the criminal charge was defined as a felony. Neither of them ended up on the jury. Shocker!

Building a Sound Literacy Foundation

My mother, a former elementary school teacher, was always very dismissive of the whole language approach to teaching reading. For that reason, she taught us how to read at home with a primarily phonics approach while we were home before/after half-day kindergarten. She had books like Why Johny Can't Read on her bookshelves, and she'd encourage us to read them--after we'd graduated from kindergarten, of course--so that we could understand the "reading war" issues. However, it wasn't until my recent tutoring experience that I finally observed for myself just how bad the outcome of whole language instruction could be.

Samuel L. Blumenfeld blames whole-word method reading instruction for the dyslexia that afflicts many basically normal children in his book Homeschooling: A Parents Guide to Teaching Children.

Dyslexia is caused when the teaching method requires that the child develop a holistic reflex when looking at our printed words. A holistic reflex is developed when the child is taught to look at each printed word as a whole configuration, like a Chinese character. The child is expected to look at the word and see a picture. This is done in the classroom before the child has been taught any phonics [I would add "or before he's been taught enough phonics".]. Children are taught to read by using such strategies as looking at pictures on the page, guessing the word on the basis of its configuration or context, skipping the word, and substituting words. For example, if the word says "horse" and the child reads it as "pony" the teacher will be quite satisfied.....

Does anyone in his right mind believe that a child who reads the word "father" as "daddy" knows how to read? The child who reads "daddy" for "father" is looking at a picture, not a sequence of letters that stands for a specific sequence of speech sounds. This child is being taught to develop a holistic reflex, that is, a habit of automatically looking at all words as whole configurations. Once the child has developed this holistic reflex, he or she has also acquired a block against seeing the phonetic structure of our alphabetically written words. This block is what causes "dyslexia".

I've seen the block now, thanks to the inappropriate teaching inflicted on the eight-year-old boy I tutor. He guesses all over the place, reads words backwards ("saw" is nearly always "was", even though when forced to look at letter order he can sound out even short words properly), and substitutes words similar in meaning for other words that are quite easy to sound out. His default method of attacking text is not one that is helping him read the words that are actually in front of him. Blumenfeld has some ideas for helping children in his situation, so I'm going to try them out. Does anyone else have some helpful ideas that will help me reformat his reading skills in the forty minutes per week I spend with him?

One of the things I've become convinced of recently is that my mother was very intelligent on the subject of reading instruction. Another is that I am never subjecting a child of mine to public school reading instruction until he or she can already read fluently.