Day 755 of 1000
I got stuck with a Toyota Prius today when I arrived in Phoenix. I was not happy. I learned to loathe them when I drove my parent’s Prius when I was in Oregon a few months back. I am going to ask for the biggest SUV available next time I am in town.
Day 754 of 1000
Something very interesting happened to Lorena last week. An acquaintance noticed that Kelly was pretty stressed about something. The something happened to be the proofs-based Linear Algebra class she is taking this semester. It is a hard graduate level class taught be a internationally well-known applied mathematics professor at NCSU. The acquaintance’s told Lorena her daughter-in-law’s doctoral degree was much tougher than anything Kelly might be doing and that Kelly should not get so stressed. We laughed about it later.
We do not know whether or not that engineering degree was difficult, but we do know that what Kelly is doing is about as hard as it gets. If she can handle this class, she can handle just about anything. Some people struggle less with this complex material than Kelly. She has to work hard and long to understand the material, but she is getting it. Engineering degrees have more to do with the application of math and less to do with its theoretical underpinnings.
It is possible to memorize your way through many if not most engineering classes, even at the graduate level. That is not true for most math classes. You have to learn think in math. Paradigm shifts must occur to “get” the material and pass the class. Engineering degrees are not as focused on memorization and regurgitation of material as liberal arts, law, medicine, biology, and the social science, but they are not like Physics, Chemistry, and Math either.
The conversation was mostly interesting because of the vicarious posturing about something for which the pontificator was wholly unqualified. I think that is the way it is with the respect to graduate education in general. People do not realize that even very difficult graduate degrees have more to do with persistence than perspicacity. So in the spirit of persistence, the kids are taking the next step. Today they are spending the morning taking a practice GRE test. GRE stands for “Graduate Record Examination”. It is the most commonly accepted graduate school application test.
They will take the real thing two weeks from today. Then, they will start applying to graduate schools. I will write more about that as they move through the process.
Day 752 of 1000
Carla, a friend of ours and a mother from Georgia wrote something on Facebook this morning that really resonates with us at this time in the life of our family:
Once upon a time, long ago, in the “Dark Ages,” I was a teenager. I felt rebellious, I felt unsettled, I had crushes, I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wasn’t always crazy about what my parents thought, I was highly influenced by the opinions of others, I had acne, I experienced ‘peer pressure,’ I was self-conscious, I didn’t have my own car, I had homework, I got angry, I had frizzy hair, I argued with my siblings. So don’t tell me “You don’t know what I’m going through….”
Day 751 of 1000
I was thinking of a verse that I wanted to read, but did not know where to find it so I googled it. The verse is II Corinthians 6:17. It says:
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,…
The whole context seems to run from verse 14 through the end of the chapter. Here is the whole thing:
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
I was thinking about what one should do with respect to people who claim to be believers, but advocate for things that are clearly not scriptural such as remarriage after divorce1, abortion2, and homosexual behavior3. I was not thinking so much about these behaviors, rather, I was thinking about what I should tell my children. They asked me what is the right repsonse toward people who claim they have the same worldview and belief system as us while overtly advocating for things God hates and calls abomination.
When I googled the verse, it took me to a place that showed only that one verse. I wanted to see the whole thing so I googled the chapter. But, I inadvertantly googled Corinthians 6 (I not II). I figured it out pretty quickly, but before I did I read the first part of the chapter. It was amazingly apropo:
Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
That was very interesting and made me think of some additional verses in Matthew 18:
Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
This all gave me pause. I have always been the type to try not to make waves, but when one’s kids are involved it is often necessary to say something and probably take a firm stand. After attempting to get through the scriptural process and at least a plurality and probably a majority are still at odds with what you believe is true and right, then what? The kids really do need an answer, and a good parent owes it to them. I think the time is coming when more and more parents will face this.
1. The words of Jesus in Mark 10:11-12.
2. The phrase “conceived and bore” is used repeatedly (see Genesis 4:1,17) and the individual has the same identity before as after birth. “In sin my mother conceived me,” the repentant psalmist says in Psalm 51:7. The same word is used for the child before and after birth (Brephos, that is, “infant,” is used in Luke 1:41 and Luke 18:15.) God knows the preborn child. “You knit me in my mother’s womb . . . nor was my frame unknown to you when I was made in secret” (Psalm 139:13,15). God also helps and calls the preborn child. “You have been my guide since I was first formed . . . from my mother’s womb you are my God” (Psalm 22:10-11). “God… from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace” (St. Paul to the Galatians 1:15). (Cited from this webpage)
3. Old Testament: Leviticus 20:13. New Testament: Romans 1:26-27.
Day 750 of 1000
I received mixed reviews from my family on my post about Christian’s 18th Birthday. Lorena and Kelly loved it, but I received a stern lecture on grace and humility from Christian. He is not so keen that people know his age nor does he advertise his accomplishments. I am pretty sure he is right and I am letting pride get the best of me. I am sorry.
Still, there are not so many opportunities for homeschool kids to get accolades for academic achievement. It is not like the kids sent to government schools for warehousing in a Lord of the Flies style social settings so their mothers, at least the ones who are not forced to work for a living, can get their “me” time at their yoga class and their lattes at Starbucks. There are selfies that need to be posted on Facebook and Instagram and kids get in the way of finding time and the right venue for just the right picture. In the meantime, much effort is expended to provide accolade opportunities in the name of building self-esteem in badly socialized kids who are often not so accomplished at either learning or doing.
So, I am really going to try to back it off a bunch, work on my humility, and not be too prideful–at least until (and if) the kids graduate. Even then, I will try to keep it brief.
Wow! After I wrote the post below about Christian’s CLEP credits going into the community college, I realized I might be wrong about the number he had earned. I WAS wrong. He earned 15 credits, not 13. When I looked that up, his mathematics placement scores came up. Normally, students need to have completed Precalculus to start the first Calculus sequence. Christian took the test after having completed only half of Precalculus in homeschool. We were very surprised when he tested into Calculus. What I did not know until today is that he did it by the skin of his teeth. He tested fairly highly in virtually everything but Trigonometry. In Trig, Christian needed a score of 50 or greater to get into Calculus. He got a 50. If this would not have happened, both Kelly’s and Christian’s trajectory would have been dramatically different.
Day 745 of 1000
I will be in Arizona on Christian’s birthday this year so we had a birthday cake and celebrated a little early with a birthday cake and some candles after dinner last night. It was nice. I thought I would write down a few things about him to celebrate this milestone.
Here are a just a few random notes:
HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!!!
Day 741 of 1000
The place where Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah now live had an event by the pond that Grandpa Milo built at their old place in Newberg. It has been turned into a place that hosts weddings and other big events.
Here is one of Grandpa Milo’s signature concoctions he made for the event:
Day 732 of 1000
Lorena is passionate about home improvement. I put this picture up previously, when she was refinishing a bookcase last month, but it is one of the ones that got lost when our service provider went out of business. It was important to put it back up. We plan to move back out west within the next year our two. Our plan is to move to an area where there is a big university. We like to live within easy driving distance to a town that has a big university. Also, we want to buy a piece of trash house on as nice a lot as we can find, specifically so Lorena can do a remodel. The amount of satisfaction Lorena gets out of this sort of thing is very great. We needed to have this picture back up. I am glad I found it.
Day 729 of 1000
We all felt pretty nostalgic today. This picture is of Kelly and Christian just before they took off to NCSU for the first day of their Senior year at NCSU. Of course, Lorena had to take a picture. It was strange that they went through the same ritual as virtually every other year since they started school at age five by taking a trip to Target to buy new notebooks and writing instruments for all their classes. The main thing different this year is they have their own car so, for the most part, Lorena will not be driving them.
Last night Christian and I worked on letters to send to professors at some target graduate schools he would like to attend. We are working over his resume to go along with it. Sometime today, I will sign them both up to take the GRE (Graduate Record Examination). At all seems a little surreal, but in a good way.
Day 728 of 1000
Lorena’s first day of class was last Friday. Christian and Kelly’s first day of class is tomorrow. I got a timely reminder of what college is like yesterday afternoon when my buddy at work received the following text from his college Freshman son:
Philosophy is full of creepy people and the instructor is also fairly sketchy looking…
He laughed out loud when he got the message. He showed it to me and I laughed, too. It reminded me of some of the messages Kelly sent from her writing class with the commie professor. You can read about it here. This year Kelly and Christian both are scheduled for all technical classes all the time. Both of them have technical writing classes this semester, but that is as close as it gets. I am thankful the non-reality based, leftist, humanist classes are now over, but they were kind of fun while they lasted. On the other hand it is pretty maddening to pay for classes that teach nothing good and a lot of material that is objectively wrong.
Maybe we should stay in North Carolina. According to this article in The Examiner, people seem to age very well here:
Perhaps in an effort to promote North Carolina as one of the healthiest States in the Nation, this latest voter twist comes to us from Susan Myrick of the Civitas Institute in North Carolina–not to be confused with Rep. Sue Myrick of NC who is unrelated. In a radio interview with local WBT Anchor Tara Servatious, Susan reports that she has been keeping track of the number of votes in North Carolina of individuals over the age of 110 years and apparently we have quite a few, over 410 of the 110 year olds–to be exact– actually voted via absentee ballot on October the 28th. Yes indeed, now it would appear that good ole NC has the market cornered on the Centenarian vote.
At latest count, Susan has garnered a total Absentee Ballot vote of over 2,660 people over the age of 110. Someone contact the Guiness Book and warm up the Ford, the Fountain of Youth exists and its right here in lovely NC. It’s no wonder people are moving here in droves–maybe the use of tobacco isn’t such a bad thing after all? But, on a more serious note, with all of the irregularities going on all over the place, we can now begin to wonder about a few things.
This picture arrived by email this morning. It is from the Cottage Grove Sentinel newspaper in Cottage Grove, Oregon. Grandma Sarah is the one on the left in the front row with the pink blouse. Grandpa Milo is two her right, behind her. The 65th Cottage Grove High School reunion took place last month. For those who do not know, Grandpa Milo was the student body president his senior year in high school.
Day 724 of 1000
This morning when I read the news on Free Republic, I ran into this article on a new program at NCSU. That pointed to this article in the News and Observer that describes the new “Big Data” joint venture between NCSU and the NSA. It starts out like this:
As the field of “big data” continues to grow in importance, N.C. State University has landed a big coup – a major lab for the study of data analysis, funded by the National Security Agency.
A $60.75 million grant from the NSA is the largest research grant in NCSU’s history – three times bigger than any previous award.
The Laboratory for Analytic Sciences will be launched in a Centennial Campus building that will be renovated with money from the federal agency, but details about the facility are top secret. Those who work in the lab will be required to have security clearance from the U.S. government.
NCSU officials say the endeavor is expected to bring 100 new jobs to the Triangle during the next several years. The university, already a leader in data science, won the NSA contract through a competitive process.
NCSU university already has strengths in computer science, applied mathematics and statistics and a collaborative project with the NSA on cybersecurity. The university also is in the process of hiring four faculty members for its new data-driven science cluster, adding to its expertise.
This fits very nicely with Kelly’s analytics internship at the JHU-APL. The other thing I thought was fun and interesting is the connection was not just to the Statistics department, but to the Applied Mathematics department, too. Christian is an Applied Math major. The article also talks about the Professional Masters Degree in Analytics our friend Andrew earned last year.
Kelly’s internship was quite an amazing and fruitful experience for her. I described that a little bit here and a few other places. She loved the day to day statistics work given to her. Her boss was a good mentor and even a better teacher. He recommended a couple of classes for her to take that were not on her plan. Today, she decided to drop her Economics minor so she could take the classes he recommended. This semester’s class is a graduate class in Linear Algebra. There is only one session being taught and Christian is in it. That is great. Kelly and Christian have not had a class together since their last semester of community college when they took undergraduate Linear Algebra. Then, next semester, she plans to take Real Analysis, a very ugly but very necessary mathematical proofs class.
I asked her, “Do you think you can handle it?”
She said, “Sure. I have a completely different perspective now that I have seen what kind of work I will do after I get my degree. It will be hard, but I can do it. I am taking it because I know I will need it.”
There is nothing like a little bit of real-world experience doing something you love to provide some motivation to do something that is worthwhile, but hard.
Day 723 of 1000
Somehow, tuition payment for Lorena’s Biology class at the community college slipped through the cracks. Class is scheduled to start tomorrow (Really??? On a Friday? Who made that decision?). When she checked her schedule on the internet we found she was registered for zero credits. Zero. How lame is it that I remembered to pay the two big tuition payments, but forgot the small one. We compared the available classes with open sections with the courses she needs to finish her degree and found a total of TWO classes that would work. Introduction to Old Testament is offered as a three hour class on Saturday mornings so that is out. Introduction to New Testament is offered on MWF from 8-8:50 so we signed her up.
I wish I could say this is the only time I have done something like this, but it is actually the third time. The fall semester of the last year of the kids community college experience “featured” a trip to Johnston Community College so Christian could take Physics I and Differential Equations. Lorena drove him, took two classes herself, and got some bonding time with Christian, but it was pretty painful.
Day 721 of 1000
Kelly came back from her internship at the Johns Hopkins University-Applied Physics Laboratory just in time for a visit from the Larsons. They are dear homeschooling friends from Texas. Age-wise, the twin boys fall right between Christian and Kelly. That have gotten along famously since late elementary school. We spent a great weekend with them visiting the NCSU Hill Library and the North Carolina Museum or Art, playing games, talking, playing music, going to church, and generally just hanging out together. The Larson’s are great musicians–voice, violin/fiddle, accordian, piano–really they are amazing.
At any rate, it got me to thinking about the Larson’s homeschool trajectory. It was a little different than our trajectory due to the normal reasons: differing interests (medicine, law, and business rather than engineering and math), amazing music skills, access to great Texas homeschool resources, differing teaching styles and curricula, etc. Still, the spirit of their homeschool was more similar to ours than just about any we have seen. They put worldview above other academic subjects, skipped two years of high school to put their kids into the community college, focused on hard science and math, but backfilled with music, international travel, language, hunting, and community service.
Some of the things they did much better than us include their participation in things like youth symphony, youth court (as lawyers and judges), EMT training, medical research, and I am sure there are others. It is great to see these boys prosper in ways that would not have been possible in a government or private school setting, but what we admire the most is their humility and the joy they derive from the path they have chosen as a family.
Day 712 of 1000
I was pretty bummed that we lost a bunch of posts when our internet service provider went out of business and our newest backup was over a month and a half old. Fortunately, Eric, Audrey, and family had us in their RSS feed so they had a bunch of the old posts in their RSS cache. Amazing. They were kind enough to forward those to us. I do not think it will be all of them, but it is a bunch and we really appreciate it. I will be putting them up one by one over the next few days along with any photos I have that might go with them. THANKS GUYS!
Day 710 of 1000
Kelly is having a phenomenal summer. This is really the first time she has lived away from home. She is mostly on her own (living with some VERY good people–thank you Brian and Celia and thanks Troy for setting that up), driving to work in the kids little Ford Fiesta, going to baseball games (Go Orioles!), and just having a great time.
Today, though, was especially good. She not only got an offer for another internship next year, but was told they would very much like her to apply for a job after she gets her Masters Degree. It does not get much better than that.
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén
