Yet More Navel Gazing

Iraq has become more of a part of our day to day life since moving here to Jacksonville. Many in our local homeschooling community are military families who have fathers either already been overseas, are currently there, or are about to go. We even know of two families where the father has been killed in the last year. It’s become less abstract to us than it was before.

Number One Son takes classes at a local ‘edutainment’ facility that has a special program for homeschoolers. It also has these Friday night kid’s parties where the ‘fun counselors’ play with the kids and organize activities while parents go out on their own. Many of these counselors are young men who work there part-time. It’s something that really works for us. Our boys really look up to these guys.

One of Number One Son’s favorite counselors is joining the Marines…enlisted. The young man blithely talks about doing at least two tours in Iraq where he’ll gain enough experience so when he becomes an officer, he’ll be taken seriously. Listening to him talk with such hope makes me feel so very sad…how many of the 4000 dead American soldiers thought the same thing?

My son found out about it this week and thinks it’s the coolest thing since the Nick Hotel. The questions are getting to me: He’s going to be in a battle, do you think he’ll be a hero? Will he get to shoot people? What’s Iraq?

My problem is that many of the people in our immediate community have very different views of what the war in Iraq is. I want to be honest with my son that I think that the war in Iraq is horrible and that I don’t believe that the sacrifice being asked of our armed forces is making the world a better place. At the same time I have to understand that my son’s peers have fathers there.

How do I deal with the hero worship of something that I find disgusting?

This was in a recent issue of The New Yorker.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/04/28/080428sh_shouts_borowitz

My favorite is the letter from Tiger Beat. Is that magazine even around still?

Yes, I’ve been gone for a while. I’d like to claim some sort of cosmic angst about not finding anything interesting enough to write about but that isn’t true. I’ve been spending much of my time getting a new group off of the ground called SHEAF (Secular Home Educators Association of Florida).

Most responses (90%) are totally positive. Some of the other, more negative, responses have ranged from personal things (I was going to start a group like that!) to pedantic (Why secular and not inclusive? Do you hate Christians?)

I’m more fascinated with the latter negative responses as I think the former have more to do with personality disorders than actual thought. So I’d like to write a brief (HA!) post about inclusive vs. secular.

Secular according to the dictionary is simply an absence of religion. Secular is not pro-gay marriage, its not feminist, its not anti-God. It just means no religion. I will say that I think evolution might be part of a secular system due to its global acceptance by the world scientific community (now watch me get a bunch of ignorant morons telling me about some latest intelligent design insight!)

People here in Florida, even secular homeschoolers, seem to be enamored with the concept of inclusive. I’m baffled by it. Florida homeschoolers really seem to have the attitude that inclusive means that Christians (of the right wing variety) get to say whatever they want while atheists/non-Christians ‘respect’ Christian beliefs while avoiding topics such as evolution in order to not offend. I don’t feel that my worldview or homeschooling knowledge is advanced listening to a mom of seven extol the virtues of having a ‘quiverful’ of children that she keeps safe from the horrors of homosexuals by homeschooling.

SHEAF is secular that means keep it at home. One person mentioned she didn’t like secular because she felt that meant she’d have to keep her spiritual side in check so she wouldn’t feel welcome. Has she ever thought that SHE made people uncomfortable by not keeping her spiritual side in check?

This post sounds really angry as I read over it. More than angry, I’m just bothered by the illogical nature of it. Secular homeschooling is what’s really inclusive. No one should be offended by being unable to talk about God for 50 minutes and instead having to focus on the actual process of homeschooling (flash cards or not kind of stuff)

I'm very tired of the "you're a self-hating woman" stuff from Hill-ocrats.

I disagree with two of Hillary Clinton's policy points:

I disagree with her immigration policy. I believe illegal immigrants deserve a drivers license. I believe illegals having a drivers license would benefit all the drivers on the road!

This is liberal heresey...but I'm not a huge advocate of universal health care, especially the type she's suggesting. Tax credits aren't what's needed...tax credits don't begin to help the out of sight medical costs for the working poor and middle class. And it doesn't address the out of control medicine costs.

On the whole, most of their policies are VERY similar. There isn't a whole lot of issue based differences. So now it comes down to personality, character, and what vision I think each of them has.

Hillary Clinton is part of the problem...the status quo. She's claiming experience through her husband's administration. After that much time in a place I believe you stop being able to see how paradigms can be totally different. She things incremental change is the only way to go because she doesn't see DC as a place of change. I don't like that. The whole 'vote for me or the boogeyman will get you' stuff has been done to death by Dubya. And I'm done with that too.


I also don't like her whole "I have more experience than Obama" shtick. Barak Obama has held elected political office longer than her. Obama didn't have a presidential husband opening the doors for him in the early days of his legislative career.

It comes down to who I think has a vision of America that is going to be better for us all..my children...my children's children. And Hillary doesn't have that in spite of having a vagina just like me.

is a very interesting post on how online, intellectual property can get hijacked...and how some people think that stealing is OK as long as they profit from it.

I'd Rather Be Hated Than Used

So she cried again...waaaaaaa

I hate when women do this.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080204/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_reunion

The day before New Hampshire and the day before Super Tuesday...coincidence? I think not

After years of doing this, I've come across many different websites and I'm interested in sharing (and if you've got some please share) with a detailed description. These are the only posts that I'm going to label so they'll be easier to archive together. I'll discuss what I think the site/resource is good for so it's just not a simple link. Let's try to do this once a week ans see how it goes.

The innaugeral issue will feature webquests and a great place to find them (and make them!). Webquests are, in short, online lesson plans. Instructors can use already existing code (or program their own website) and gather Internet resources about a particular topic.

Here's one I did for a technology in education class about the Chicago Fire:

Debby's Chicago Fire Webquest

They cover every topic imaginable and every level. I've found some great ones about place value, multiplication, Iraq, and the upcoming presidential election.

One of the best sites to find existing webquests is webquest.org A quick google search can bring up more sites.

If you want to *create* your own, I'd look at www.questgarden.com For a small fee, you can have access to their WYSIWYG editor to create your own webquests. There are also more webquests available than are on webgarden.org.

Think of webquests as online lapbooks :)

Labels: educational resources