Schooling and the death of childhood learning

HERE is a terrific piece by Daniel Quinn on the history of "public education" and the motives behind it, as well as an affirmation of the natural curiosity of children -- who do NOT need motivation to learn. It is a testament to unschooling.

Here's a quote from the speech:

"What sells most people on the idea of school is the fact that the unschooled child learns what it wants to learn when it wants to learn it. This is intolerable to them, because they're convinced that children don't want to learn anything at all - and they point to school children to prove it. What they fail to recognize is that the learning curve of preschool children swoops upward like a mountain - but quickly levels off when they enter school.

"By the third or fourth grade it's completely flat for most kids. Learning, such as it is, has become a boring, painful experience they'd love to be able to avoid if they could. But there's another reason why people abhor the idea of children learning what they want to learn when they want to learn it. They won't all learn the same things! Some of them will never learn to analyze a poem! Some of them will never learn to parse a sentence or write a theme! Some of them will never read Julius Caesar! Some will never learn geometry! Some will never dissect a frog! Some will never learn how a bill passes Congress!

"Well, of course, this is too horrible to imagine. It doesn't matter that 90% of these students will never read another poem or another play by Shakespeare in their lives. It doesn't matter that 90% of them will never have occasion to parse another sentence or write another theme in their lives. It doesn't matter that 90% retain no functional knowledge of the geometry or algebra they studied. It doesn't matter that 90% never have any use for whatever knowledge they were supposed to gain from dissecting a frog. It doesn't matter that 90% graduate without having the vaguest idea how a bill passes Congress. All that matters is that they've gone through it!"

Biggest discovery ever on human origins

I've been hearing rumors for years about a new discovery in Ethiopia, but scientists haven't been letting the cat out of the bag. Now I know why. They had to piece hundreds of skeletal remains together using computers. What they came up with is 36 skeleons of adults and kids dating back more than 4 million years. One of the greatest hypotheses to come from this is that chimps and apes probably looked a lot different way back then and have been evolving themselves quite extraordinarily. This would explain many previous puzzles in determining the evolutionary pattern of humans.

Here's the amazing story HERE.

2 alert people (and a Glock) save girl from rape

Before I tell this story, a little background on good parenting around potential pedophiles.

As the father of a 6-year-old girl whom I love more than anyone else in the world, I am always on the alert when in public for the loitering ne'er-do-wells. You know them when you see them. They are the ones at shopping centers or parks or sports functions who have no purpose associated with the surrounding activity. Sometimes, these people are simply lethargic and innocuous. Sometimes, they are potential threats.

You can usually assess whether they are threats by what draws their attention (little kids and frail women), how they focus that attention (intermittent intensity), and how they express their interest (momentary puerile look on face). After reading about these sublife forms for decades, I've learned that they are often masters of deception. They will feign mostly uninterest in the objects of their lascivious desire and move to a secluded spot (often bathrooms) near their victims without any ostensive pursuit.

They are often master predators, and they know well which victims are their best prey and which moments to pounce. Any caring parent is an alert parent, fully knowledgeable that these scum are ubiquitous and that eventually they will be in proximity to our children many times during our children's lives. They are out there as I write this (and as my child sleeps) scoping out some other parents' children. If we value our children, then our protection radar is always on (even during heavy conversation with friends). We consciously evaluate every public situation for full security (usually our close proximity and ability to handle a situation) to protect our highest value (or one of our highest values).

Now, the story. A man was sitting outside of a Stone Mountain Park restroom. A female off-duty GBI agent was finishing an impromptu hike down Stone Mountain. A female off-duty sheriff's officer was about to begin a five-mile run. A 13-year-old girl was about to head toward the restroom. The park was sparsely populated because of bad weather.

The two officers noticed the man and said later that he "was acting very strangely" and "he was checking out everyone who walked by." They continued what they were doing and occasionally looked back at the man. The girl went to the restroom. The sheriff's officer looked back again at the man and didn't see him. The officer headed toward the restroom.

Once inside, she saw a man's feet sticking out of the bottom of one of the stalls as he was kneeling. She heard muffled cries. She yelled in a commanding voice for the man to release the child. Nothing happened. She yelled again. The girl exited the stall and said a strange man was inside. The officer (not armed) escorted the girl outside and yelled for someone to call 911.

The GBI agent was already headed toward the bathroom carrying her Glock, which she'd gone back to her car to retrieve. The man tried to leave the bathroom and met the GBI agent and her Glock. He surrendered. His name is Patrick Leithead. Though he had very little time with the girl, he has been charged with aggravated child molestation and remains jailed without bond in Dekalb County, GA.

The two off-duty officers are heroes. I wish I could kiss them. They did their jobs perfectly. They served and protected according to the words on their cars. The girl may grow up knowing that these two brave individuals saved from her from something horrible, if not death.

But ... where were the parents? The stories on this girl do not mention where the parents or guardians were. How could any adult with this child not notice such a man sitting idly by with sinister notice on his forehead? Perhaps the parents of this child have learned their lesson (probably not), but how many other parents out there do not take these lurking monsters seriously ALWAYS?

My thoughts go back to my dear sleeping daughter. And my commitment to her safety is steadfast.

Shaken, stirred and on the rocks

Check out this amazing story of an unschooler mom who got her life together and found amazing fitness in rock climbing. I love stories like this!

The Google Books Library Project -- and rascals

Some of you may be familiar with the awesome thing Google has been trying to put together for years: amass millions of out-of-print books in electronic form and make them available to everyone in the world. Here's how Google explains it:

"In October 2008, Google announced a settlement agreement with a broad class of authors and publishers to make the world's books even more accessible online. If approved, the agreement will help readers access millions of hard-to-find, out-of-print books; it will provide new opportunities for authors and publishers to sell their works; and it will further the efforts of our library partners to preserve and maintain their collections while making books more accessible for people on their home computers, in their academic institutions, and in public libraries across the U.S.Authors, publishers, students, teachers, librarians, and civil rights organizations have voiced their support for the agreement over the past months. This site provides a snapshot of their views and some of the ways the settlement will increase access to information."

But not everybody is happy with Google, with the usual accusations of antitrust being leveled at Google, who has signed contracts with the appropriate people and settled suits with The Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers to ensure that its project goes forward.

The "Department of Justice" (apostrophes are mine) has weighed in on the matter and demands changes to the agreement, and a district judge is looking at the matter now. The district judge says that the agreement (which is contractual) "raises significant issues" (hmm, wonder what they might be?), but even more troubling, the district judge sort of likes the project because it "would offer many benefits to society."

Well, thank you, Mr. Collectivist. Glad you think Google is offering benefits to society. Hey, while you're at it, rascal, you might look up the meaning of "contract."

Thank you, Google, for being so fricking kick-ass! Luv ya, baby!

The mystics want my money

When you're connected to business folks on LinkedIn and other places, you never know what lurks inside the beast on the other side of the email address. One of these monsters evidently is an "evangelistic leader" and included me today in a very big GROUP email (see below) requesting money for her church. I'll let you, my dear reader, imagine what my response to her entire group was.

Oh, I forgot to mention that she called me a month ago about business and introduced herself as Evangelist Linda Hood. I asked her if "Evangelist" was her first name. She laughed and said, "Oh, I've never been asked that before. No, I'm an evangelistic leader." I said, "Oh, I'm an atheistic leader." The conversation didn't last long. Here's her email:

______________
Hello,
We need your help.....I'm asking everybody I know to please donate a pledge to my church...we've located a new building on Candler Rd.....that can purchased....we can't do that w'out your financial support I'm asking the ( Body of Christ for Help!!!!!!!!! whatever you GIVE WILL BE APPRECIATED AND ADDED TOWARDS THE $65,000...MAKE ALL
CHECKS PAYABLE TO: RHEMA CHRISTIAN MINSTRY.....SEND DONATIONS TO...
Evangelist Linda Hood, P.O.Box 830921....Stone Mountain,Ga.30083....phone # 404-246-6058.....OR JOIN US FOR OUR WORSHIP CELEBRATION SUNDAY @ 11:AM....WE
NEED YOUR PLEDGE ON THIS SUNDAY.....1st SUNDAY IN OCTOBER....THANKING YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR SUPPORT....IF I CAN EVER RETURN THE FAVOR PLEASE DN'T HESITATE TO CONTACT ME......ONLY FOR THE KINGDOM....HIS SERVANT........Evang.linda hood

I confess I don't have health insurance

I wrote the following letter to the Wall Street Journal after it printed a good column on how ODE's fascist health insurance plan would simply be income redistribution.

_______________
I have a confession to make. I don’t have health insurance. I’m evidently a statistic, along with 47 million of my fellow Americans. And I choose to be.

I am 49 years old. I eat nutritiously and do 7 hours of high-intensity workouts each week on a program called P90X. I have 8% body fat and the body of a 25-year-old athlete – so I guess that sort of makes me one of those healthy 20-somethings that the Obama administration plans to confiscate cash from to pay for those who don’t take care of themselves or don’t save money in case they have health issues in later life.

I stopped paying 5K-plus a year ago in catastrophic health insurance after I broke my nose playing basketball a year before and had to foot a $6,000 tab (I had 10K deductible to keep my premiums down). I negotiated with my nose doctor and the outpatient clinic to make payments for three years on the bill; they said yes, and I got my nose fixed, and I paid the bill off in less than a year.

I have been much more careful playing basketball since. This is what happens when you must pay your own health bills. I wasn’t reckless before, but perhaps I wasn’t as careful as I should’ve been with my inside-the-lane “power” layup. But recklessness is exactly what is happening in America today – and what will happen on a much greater scale if Mr. Obama proceeds with his violation of individual rights and his income redistribution, as was described by Michael Leavitt, Al Hubbard and Keith Hennessey.

Those of us who take great care of our bodies and are careful to avoid accidents will be forced at the point of a government gun to pay for those who abuse their bodies and blithely expose themselves to danger. This will create not a winter of discontent for those of us who are responsible; it will create a decade (or century) of discontent and a simmering anger at those who are visibly out of shape and reckless in public.

Obama Dead Eyes loves dictators because he is one

The ODE administration has been demanding the return of Honduras' former dictator to power, even though the Honduran supreme court ousted him. I wrote the following letter to the editor to the Wall Street Journal on that subject.

_______________
Mary Anastasia O’Grady has been the one clear voice describing the Obama administration’s unprincipled actions against Honduras, and her adjective of “embarrassing” hits the mark for any constitutionalist American. But I have two adjectives the best explain the Obama administration’s detestable coercion: “sympathetic” and “frightened.”

Mr. Obama and his eminence rouge (Hillary Clinton) have tried (and are trying) to remake America into a socialist camp and therefore have great sympathy for former Honduran strongman Manuel Zelaya, as well as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and the leaders of a half-dozen tin-pot dictatorships around the world whose good graces they continuously court. Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton do not see these “leaders” as mortal enemies of liberty; they seem them as paradigms for the takeover of private industry, capitalism and the invisible hand of free commerce.

What frightens Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton in the Honduran crisis is a constitutional judiciary dethroning a tyrant – just as crowned heads of state used to fear popular revolutions in neighboring countries. This is the reason that the Obama cabal will not comment on the particulars of the Zelaya removal. To utter any nonsense broadside against the proper judgment of the Honduran judiciary would highlight the eminence of the law over executive power.

And that might lead to arguments within the United States for the rule of law against the enormous welfare-state (socialistic) plans of this current administration – and, one might hope, for a judicial removal of any sitting president who so blithely ignores the U.S. Constitution in his quest to commit grand larceny against productive American citizens.

Ayn Rand Center's Onkar Ghate on Pajamas TV

Onkar is perhaps the most eloquent spokesman for Objectivism around today, and he proves it again HERE as he and the terrific Pajamas TV interviewer discuss self-esteem and the modern-day wimps.

Good, fun interview with Yaron Brook on Pajamas TV

Here it is HERE.