Category: culture

Boys are not well served in government school

On Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Day 758 of 1000

There is an article by a self-described feminist, Christina Hoff Sommers, on how government schools serve boys (as opposed to girls) very poorly. This is a fairly hot topic amongst homeschoolers. I recently discussed this with Eric, a fellow homeschool parent with boys of school age. We probably have different ideas about how boys should be raised and encourged in their masculinity, but we agree whole-heartedly that it necessary to raise and educate them differently from girls. It is interesting that there is such a strong argument from a feminist worldview for allowing boys to be boys and avoid shoving girls toward career paths they might now want to follow. Typical of her answers is the following:

Q: They would see this as a result of gendered socialization: of boys and girls being pushed down different paths. I assume that you see it as indicative of different preferences?

A: Yes. Of course gender identity is both biological and cultural. But we have had three generations of feminism encouraging children to enter different fields. And very little has changed. If you look at college majors, boys are still engineers and girls go into the helping professions. Many children will defy the stereotypes of their sex, but the majority seems to embody them. I think that’s a reality.

Sommers talks about faulty research and claims about research that do neither withstand scrutiny nor support the idea that girls should be raised, educated, mentored, and encouraged in the same way as boys. I liked the article a lot. It confirms my belief that we were saved from a lot of things by homeschooling that we never even considered.

Serious food questions. Is this a Southern thing?

By Dad

On Saturday, April 13, 2013

In Cooking, culture

Day 600 of 1000

Is peanuts in coke a Southern thing? I am now going to try to have to try this. Click here to read the article. (h.t. Kelly) I give it a less than twenty percent chance of making it into my regular diet. I tried with the boiled peanuts thing several time, but acquiring a taste for them will definitely take a bigger effort on my part. Actually, I think the peanuts in Coke will be a little easier.

Supporting traditional marriage at Chick-fil-A

By Dad

On Wednesday, August 1, 2012

In Christianity, culture, Family, Socialization

Day 346 of 1000

Lorena and Kelly support traditional marriage at Chick-fil-A Christian had his chemistry final this morning. This is not a post semester celebration because Christian has one more lab and Kelly has her final tomorrow. They are at Chick-fil-A to celebrate traditional marriage and support Dan Cathy and Chick-fil-A. The place was jammed, but they had a big crew working so they got their food very quickly. Everyone was in a great mood to be around like-minded, right-minded people. Lots of people took pictures and videos to commemorate the event. It was quite a happy occasion.

UPDATE!!!! NEWS FLASH!!!

Troy just commented that everyone was not just at a Chick-fil-A. They were at the brand new ONE AND ONLY to story Chick-fil-A. How cool is that. How could I have missed that. Thanks Troy!

Indoctrination at NCSU

By Dad

On Thursday, July 19, 2012

In Christianity, culture, Education, Socialization

The kids have orientation at NCSU today. So far they have heard about all the special benefits people receive solely because of the color of their skin or their sexual behavior choices. It is a good thing they are Mexican or they would not receive all the special privileges and advantages that are withheld from white males. It all seems pretty degrading to me. Thankfully, the only have one or two more brainwashing classes each–they got most of that stuff out of the way at Wake Technical Community College. Still, it is a shame they have to run the gaunlet of such nonsense to get to classes that actually teach them stuff that is relative true like math and chemistry.

Rodney Starks’ The Triumph of Christianity

By Dad

On Monday, July 9, 2012

In Christianity, culture, Education

Day 323 of 1000

The last issue of World Magazine had an article on the most recent Rodney Stark book, the Triumph of Christianity. I have read other books he has authored: The Rise of Christianity, The Victory of Reason, and God’s Battalions. He is an amazing author whose non-fiction books on the sociology of Christianity read like novels. I have not yet read this one. Stark was a professor at University of Washington for 32 years before he moved on to a position as University Professor and co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University.

I had bought into a many of the popular myths about Christian culture that permeate our society before I read his books. Some of the ideas held by society at large with respect to the Crusades, the Dark Ages, and the spread of Chrisitanity are just wrong. Rodney Stark has done more to debunk these myths than anyone. Whenever I hear such myths confidently propounded, I want to just start handing out Stark’s books. I can hardly wait to read his latest effort.

Understanding the Times–Thank you David Noebel

By Dad

On Friday, June 29, 2012

In Christianity, culture, Education, Family, Homeschool, Politics, Socialization

Day 313 of 1000

Lately, our family talks about world views, morality, and world events more than has been normal for us in the past. I think this is because of the election in Mexico on Sunday, the election in the US in November, some Supreme Court rulings, propaganda filled college orientations indoctrinations, events in the Middle East, and our own rapidly changing lives. In the midst of all that, Christian is selling a lot of our old homeschool books to raise money to buy books, cell phones, and other stuff he and Kelly need for college. One of those books is titled, Understanding the Times by David A. Noebel. Kelly, Christian, and I read the book aloud together. We liked it very much because it pulled together a lot of material we had studied previously into a discussion about world views.

Actually, I have already written about the book a number of times. You can find those posts by clicking on the following links:

We read a lot of books, listened to audio talks, and watched videos about different worldview issues. Paul Johnson, Lila Rose, William Lane Craig, Greg Koukl, Dale Carnegie, William Dembski, Stephen Meyer, Robert Spenser, and others helped us to understand the historical reality of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the seminal role of Christianity in science, law, commerce, education, and the emancipation of slaves and women. They showed us why abortion and homesexual behavior are wrong and traditional marriage is right. The main thing Understanding the Times gave us was a grasp of how different worldviews understand all of these important topics and what to expect from people who are true to these competing worldviews.

The reason this has all come to mind is that we really tried to give the kids a sense for why they should hold to a biblical worldview. This book helped tie a lot of disparate topics together into a cogent whole. The deeper we delved into these subjects, the better we understood the truths on which a biblical worldview are founded. Understanding the Times did a good job of giving us the big picture when the kids were just starting high school. It has gone a long way to prepare them for what they have confronted in college. For that I am grateful.

NCSU First day at University

By Dad

On Thursday, June 28, 2012

In culture, Education, Family, Homeschool

Day 312 of 1000

Kelly's and Christian's first day at NCSU We are running out of “first day of school” picture opportunities. If all goes well, the kids will be off to graduate school in a couple of years, but we doubt whether we will be there to take the picture. We often talk about the concept of life-long learning, so maybe I am wrong. I hope so. Our departed friend, John Sterling often told us about a fellow, I think it was Beach Paddon who just kept going to college. My understanding is that he got a new Masters degree every now and then.

This is a favorite topic of Charles Murray the co-author of, Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. Christian and I have spoken about how cool it would be to continue getting Masters degrees as a hobby after he finishes his “real” school. That is one way to continue learning, but self-teaching and pursuit of knowledge not readily available in college through alternate means are other good ways to keep learning. Homeschooling certainly served me well in that regard. Kelly has a sense for what she wants to do when she gets out of college and she will have to continually study and work to make it happen. Her school will give her something to do that she enjoys and will pay the rent, but her vocation lies in a completely separate direction.

At any rate, we have hit another milestone. The kids are stressed and excited. Lorena and I are a little bit melancholy.

Hip new sweater vest!

By Dad

On Thursday, June 14, 2012

In culture, Politics

Day 298 of 1000

I think this is the best investment I made all year. Too bad it is too warm to wear it in the summer, but it will be rested and ready for use with the right kind of weather by this fall!

Rick Santorum sweater vest

Education in the West

By Dad

On Sunday, December 11, 2011

In culture, Education, Socialization

Day 111 of 1000

The kid’s friends, Mike and Nestor, came over to the house yesterday to study for their multi-variable calculus test for 4-5 hours. I got to talk to them a bit. Both of them want to be engineers, but neither of them took a traditional educational path, Nestor having come to the U.S. a few years ago and Mike having taken some extended time in Iraq. They are both impressive people and they work very hard at hard classes. My Russian buddy, Stepan and his wife are leaning hard toward what he calls “Home Education” for his two daughters. After looking it over they have decided they do not want the educational system, public or private, to get their hands on his daughters.

Then Eric G. sent me a link to an article on the bankruptcy of the Western educational system. The article, titled “Educated” people, is spot on. There is lots of stuff like this in the article:

We are not where we are because we were privileged; oh no. We got ahead because we work harder and just had a knack for that education thing.

This forgets of course that education in the United States and Europe at this point is a certification program more than anything else. It tests basic intelligence in some areas; in other areas, such as the liberal arts, it increasingly tests nothing but political allegiance and the ability to recite dogma in different forms (such “A Feminist Analysis of Cetacean Symbolism in Public Policy”).

Even in the sciences, we do not test intelligence so much as obedience, memorization and application of rote. This enables us to stop relying on smart people and to instead promote lots of interchangeable cogs.

I completely resonate with that whole quote. The problem now is to figure out how to educate one’s kids rather than “Educate” them in the sense described at the Amerika blog. Every day, we are more thankful we homeschooled our kids. We have turned more and more of the responsibility over to our kids. We will try to help them, but they will increasingly have to navigate the educational morass on their own. I wish I knew the answer.