Chapman Kids Blog – Page 59 – "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." –John 16:33

Scott McNealy, Curriki and why public education is such a failure in America

By Dad

On Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Scott McNealy is one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems and a big proponent of something called open source education. I am on board with what he says. His public education philosophy tracks closely with mine. He explains the whole concept of open source education materials and what he has done about it here:

Here is a link to the Curriki, the free K-12 curricula and resource website he describes in the video.

What brought this back to my radar was a link my friend Andrew sent me to an online video interview of McNealy. He said, “Discussion of education starts around 28:50. Right at 31:55, he says a few words that I thought would really ring true for you.” Boy howdy was he right. I transcribed just a little bit of it here to give you the flavor McNealy’s remarks on education, part of which is about his ideas on education. I could not embed the video, but you can get to it by clicking here. I might note that he starts talking about education well before 28:50 and that is certainly worth a listen, too.

Interviewer: What is the state of the art right now? What’s going on in classes these days?

…

Scott McNealy: Monopoly is the wart.

Interviewer: In this case, the teachers union monopoly?

Scott McNealy: Who is the biggest monopolist out there? The government. So now we have the government sector union teachers driving the architecture, the process, all the rest of it. Meanwhile technology is going up, up and away.

There is much more in the video. McNealy talks about the concept of going to school, not to live one’s dream, but to get a job. The thing I really like about McNealy is that he put his money where his mouth was and did something about the whole educational mess in America. Our little family did it on a micro level by pulling our kids out of the traditional/government school morass while McNealy did it on an über-macro level and set up a system whereby every kid in America and around the world can benefit. Kudos to him!

Lorena en México (Quatro de Julio)

By Dad

On Monday, July 4, 2016

LorenaTiaBerta Lorena went to a family reunion in her trip to Mexico to visit her mother. The above picture is a small subset of her aunts, great aunts, and cousins on her mother’s side of the family. They met at what I can only describe as an event facility at the very impressive ranch of her Aunt Berta (in blue, fifth from the right) and recently passed Uncle Ishmael. They had a great time. She is enjoying herself greatly. There is lots of stuff going on, carnes asadas, visits with family, lots of cleaning and organizing (of Grandpa Lauro’s stuff) and the installation of a new bathroom. I leave you with a couple of photos of the fruit growing and grown on the small urban lot where Grandma Conchita lives. The one on the left is her papaya tree. The one on the right is two passion fruits.
PapayaTreePassionFruit

Not a time for despair

By Dad

On Saturday, July 2, 2016

In Christianity, culture, Politics

Lorena is visiting her family in Mexico and the kids are getting together for the Fourth of July weekend in Seattle. Kiwi the remaining cat sister and I are holding down the fort here in Texas. That has given me time to read and reflect. Writers on the websites and blogs I read are writing about what it means to be American and live in America as we approach the Independence Day celebration. The current state of our country and the world has helpfully reminded me that it is God how is great, not America. Any greatness that can be attributed to any country, America included, is nothing more nor less than the extent to which the people in that country reflect God’s glory through their relationship with him.

The state of the nation and world had me in a state of despair and confusion until I read the book of Esther in the Bible a couple of weeks back. The whole book was a great encouragement as is the book of Job where I am reading now. The Jewish people in captivity in Esther had every reason to despair as did Job when he lost everything, not due to disobedience, but to the gift God gave them to be used by Him in a way that accrued to good and continues to have a positive influence, even to this day. Mordecai’s admonishment to Ruth when the situation was grave and there was little hope seemed especially appropriate for Christians in America and around the world at this time of unrest.

Esther 4:14 – For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Steve Berman is an excellent writer who captures this feeling very well in a post titled The Proper Response When All Outcomes Lead to Ruin*. I used to read his personal blog, SGBerman, but it appears he has upped his game and now writes for, Erick Erickson’s The Resurgent website. He says:

We’ve put too much faith in our own leaders and not nearly enough in God for far too long. The Republican Party is not a church, and it’s not God’s party. The political leaders we choose are not God’s anointed, as we would like to think. We are not Samuel pouring oil over Saul’s head or choosing David from among the sons of Jesse.

I think that statement is equally true for all of America, not just the Republican party. I would also like to add that I love America, unequivoaclly. I believe America, while not perfect, has done great good in her role in the world and the governance of her citizens. Nevertheless, it is not trite to say that we tread very dangerous ground when we, as a country turn from God. Lots of people who loved and served God went into captivity in Babylon. Lots of Christians died for their service to God–our Bible study last Wednesday was Acts 12:1 where it says “And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.” It seemed like just a passing note in the prose. There had to be a much bigger story behind it all. Our allegiance to God might cost us our lives. For most of my life time, a strong argument could have been made that allegiance to God was not incompatible with allegiance to America. That seems to be becoming less true daily.

*I especially liked his mixed, Star Wars-LOTR metaphor.

Mocking Neil deGrasse Tyson

By Dad

On Friday, July 1, 2016

In culture, Politics, Science

We, along with a gazillion other people on the Internet, have enjoyed mocking Neil deGrasse Tyson for his buffoonery. His self aggrandizing ways have turned him into such a caricature that thoughtful people pretty much just tune him out these days. Beside that, many people have realized that, all along, he is mostly just boring. Still, it is kind of fun to watch the mockery when he says something particularly boorish and inane. That happened again a couple days ago and the good people everywhere had fun with it. The links here, here and here speak for themselves. Enjoy.

Loss of a dear friend

By Dad

On Thursday, June 30, 2016

In Christianity, Family

We just heard our dear friend Jeannie Harris has passed away at age 37. Some who read this blog will know her. She kept the Mountain Memories (Ryan and Jeannie) blog to which we link in our blog roll in the right sidebar. This is a tremendous loss of a wonderful person, wife and mother.

Some common sense about guns

By Dad

On Thursday, June 30, 2016

In culture, Politics

I am trying to talk our little family into upping our game a little when it comes to guns. My cousin Merle and his daughter, my favorite government school teacher, are our main advisors in this effort. We thought it would be nice to get everyone a new handgun, then go to some shooting events together as a family thing. With guns on my mind, a couple of great articles came onto my radar. Real Gun Sense: Tennessee Makes Proprietors of Gun-Free Zones For Injury While Disarmed is an article about a great new law that just got passed in The Volunteer State that holds at least some of the people responsible for some of these mass shooting accountable for their actions. The author make an even better point back in November when he said the legislators who create the gun-free zones should be held accountable, too.

Then, I ran into a truly joyful article about something called The Wal-Mart Rule:

The Wal-Mart rule involves three basic steps.

The first step is accomplished by taking a trip to Wal-Mart to find out what kinds of ammunition they normally stock.

…

The second step in following the Wal-Mart rule is simply buying all the guns needed to fire all the ammunition sold at Wal-Mart.

…

The third step … simply involves picking up one box of ammo every time you go to Wal-Mart.

Great stuff. These articles gave me that same warm fuzzy feeling I got the first time I stepped into a MacDonald’s in Prescott Valley, Arizona and saw three blue-haired ladies packing heat. It just makes you feel more secure when good people have guns and know how to use them.

I need combat pay

By Dad

On Wednesday, June 29, 2016

In Health, Science

BrownRecluse
We found this little beauty on a pallet on the manufacturing floor at work today. One of the guys said it was a brown recluse spider which is really, really nasty, but I looked here and am pretty sure it is not because it has “more than two pigments on its body.” Not sure what it is, maybe a wolf spider? They are poisonous, too, but maybe not as bad. At any rate, it was big and cool looking.

I heard a secret today that made my day

By Dad

On Sunday, June 26, 2016

In culture, General

BettyToothbrush When I talk to little kids, I have learned that if I get down on one knee so I can look them in the eye and speak quietly, I do not scare them so badly. I did that after church this morning with a little girl I really had not known very well as she stood holding her mother’s hand. I think she must be about four years old.

I said, “What do you have to say today?”

She said, “I have a secret.”

I said, “Well, tell me, tell me! What is your secret?”

She very proudly and with quite a bit of flair said, “I did not brush my teeth last night!”

I said, “That is a GREAT secret. I promise I won’t tell hardly anybody.”

Then she hopped up and down, quite pleased with herself, as her mother rolled her eyes. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Texas gun laws, Brexit and homeschool: It is all about local control

By Dad

On Saturday, June 25, 2016

In culture, Education, Politics

Lorena and I were in a social setting earlier this week where an older couple started railing on the evil of allowing students to openly carry arms on campus. The President of UT Austin and every other liberal in sight, got their panties in a wad over something that will actually make campuses safer from stuff like the mass shooting that took place at UT Austin in 1966. Lorena and I are of the opinion that the more guns in the hands of law abiding citizens, the safer, people are going to be. The scholarly research backs that opinion up. You can see one of John Lott’s early studies confirming that concept here. The left wants to take away people’s right to defend themselves from both criminals and an overreaching government.

The reaction to vote by the citizens Great Britain to leave the European Union has had the same effect on both sides of the Atlantic. The totalitarian left does not want the people of Great Britain to exercise control over their own country. They want to give that control to politicians and bureaucrats in Belgium. Peter Grant over at Bayou Renaissance Man does his usual stellar job of describing the situation in an article title Brexit: Local and National Interests versus “One World.” That article is definitely worth a read. The inimitable John Bolton makes the point in this Fox News video that the European Union was never about economic issues, but about the exercise of political control by people far away from those being governed:

I think the opposition to homeschool by the education establishment and most of the left here in the United States is an outgrowth of that same precise sentiment. The federal government recently created a policy document that stated the following (emphasis added):

It is the position of the Departments that all early childhood programs and schools recognize families as equal partners in improving children’s development, learning and wellness across all settings, and over the course of their children’s developmental and educational experiences.

They got caught before this policy could be implemented and rescinded it due to the outcry from outraged parents. You can read about it here and here. The left and proponents of big government want to control the education of everyone else’s children. They have amply demonstrated they are really bad at it compared to interested parents. It is arguably true that the best way to give your child a good education is to just keep them away from anyone who has spent any time in the a teacher education program and educate them yourself. Why would anyone give control of the education of their children to the government? That is a rhetorical question. Local control is a good thing, even when it comes to the education of your children.

Arguments for atheism make me tired

By Dad

On Friday, June 24, 2016

In Christianity

Egnor I have written about and pointed to various things Michael Egnor has written on this blog over the past several years. I love his writing for its content, but it appeals to me even more because he seems to capture my sentiments about the topics on which he writes better than I could myself. His latest article at Evolution News and Views is titled The Rowe-Grayling Debate. It is about a debate, “The God Debate,” between a brilliant Jewish Rabbi named Daniel Rowe who did a stint in the IDF and a very much less brilliant (at least with respect to the topic of the debate), Oxford educated Philosophy professor named A. C. Grayling. You can see a video of the debate here. It was an interesting debate and well worth the watch.

The reason I write this post about Egnor’s article rather than the debate itself is because debates that feature a competent debater on the God side of this issue follow a common trajectory no matter how competent, qualified or learned the atheist or non-theist debater. There might be some rational way to argue for agnosticism, but after watching a lot of these types of debates and studying this topic off and on for several decades, I have come to the conclusion there are really no rational arguments for atheism. Equivocation is a de rigueur feature of the atheist arsenal in these debates, but that is just the tip of the incompetence/disingenuousness iceberg.

A.C. Grayling has been described as the “Fifth Horseman” of New Atheism Apocalypse. The other four horsemen are not much better–some are worse. Here is a video of a debate where William Lane Craig does the same thing to Sam Harris, one of the original four horsemen, that Rowe does to Grayling. I really appreciate Egnor’s “enough already” analysis of these kinds of debates. I am glad the debates happen because that is what got me interested enough in the topic to take a deeper dive into it, but it is very tiring to listen to the same tired atheist arguments time after time after time. It would not be so bad if the arguments were delivered with humility and good will, but they almost never are. Read Egnor’s article. It is cathartic.

Update: Another post about the debate just appeared on Evolution News and Views that discusses a fellow radical atheist’s disappoint with Grayling’s performance. If you know anything about the particular atheist making the complaint and his utter incompetence at arguing these topics, you will marvel at the advice he gives about how to argue about the Physics (not his background) discussed by Rabbi Rowe.

Another time when people got pushed too far

By Dad

On Thursday, June 23, 2016

Just a couple of years after Ted Bundy kidnapped a woman across the street from where I lived at Oregon State University, I was still in college and it was the same time of year when an events occurred a world away that were barely on my radar, but that changed the world dramatically. Peter Grant, who writes novels and keeps the Bayou Renaissance Man blog lived in South Africa at the time and writes a truly fascinating post about the Soweto Uprising that started on June 16, 1976. Those were desperate times when desperate people took their fates into their own hands because they had reached a breaking point. Grant says this about what happened:

Soweto was crucial in that it was the first time that the leaders on both sides lost control of their followers. The leaders of the African resistance movements could not control the youth, who acted in defiance of their parents and leaders and went wild for the next few years. The white politicians who thought themselves masters of South Africa’s destiny found out the hard way that they could push people so far . . . but no further. On June 16th, 1976, for the first time, they lost control – and they were never again to fully regain it.

The whole article is a great read. We are not anywhere close to that level of desperation in the United States right now, but it surely seems a direction has been established in many parts of the world that could lead to such. The pressure is building across the country–in the last few years we have lived in North Carolina, Oregon and Texas. I do not know what to expect, but as a news, sociology and history junkie, it is hard not to imagine that something ominous is gaining steam.

Buying a house

By Dad

On Wednesday, June 22, 2016

In House and home, Money

I am no longer a spring chicken. In four or five years I actually hope to quit my day job and go to contracting. To that end, Lorena and I have started to look for a house we can buy in an area we want to live. We have a good idea about the area of the country where we would like to settle, but no idea at all about specific neighborhoods. So, what we think might work as a start is to buy a small, older house on a normal sized lot in a neighborhood somewhere in that area. The idea is to fix the house up enough so it is livable, but not so much we will not be able to sell it easily, then live in it for two to three years so we can get to know the neighborhoods in the area. If we find a neighborhood we like, we can take our time to find a house to remodel or a lot on which to build without a whole lot of pressure. It really fits in to our “no debt” mindset, too. I have actually started looking at houses and talking to contractors. I do not know when or even if we will buy something, but it certainly does not hurt to get started.

Cal Newport: Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

By Dad

On Tuesday, June 21, 2016

In culture, Education, Work

A professor of Computer Science from Georgetown University wrote a book that sounds interesting about the importance of acquiring skills as a base from which to work at something you love. The premise of the book is very much aligned with things I have written previously on this blog, especially the recent post about Mike Rowe’s thoughts on the topic. Here is an excerpt from the blurb about the book on Amazon:

Cal Newport debunks the long-held belief that “follow your passion” is good advice. Not only is the cliché flawed-preexisting passions are rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work-but it can also be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping.

After making his case against passion, Newport sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving what they do. Spending time with organic farmers, venture capitalists, screenwriters, freelance computer programmers, and others who admitted to deriving great satisfaction from their work, Newport uncovers the strategies they used and the pitfalls they avoided in developing their compelling careers.

Matching your job to a preexisting passion does not matter, he reveals. Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before.

In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it.

He writes a blog, too. The first post I read there is titled The Deliberate Creative and is an absolutely stellar analysis of an article and a book about the idea that 10,000 hours of focused practice provides a level expertise to perform at a high level in most areas of endeavor. I am in complete agreement with Newport on this analysis–he takes the side of the hard workers. That probably resonates with me more because of the kind of work that I do that leaves me with less appreciation for the kind of creativity discussed in the article Newport address.

There is an interesting discussion down in the comments between Newport and the author of the article, Scott Berry Kaufman, who holds that 10,000 hours of work is not enough to be truly creative (read the article). I am sure Kaufman is a bright guy, but he is one of those guys who does not do intelligence, rather he studies intelligence. Newport, on the other hand, appears to have done hard math (it appears that his dissertation is similar in nature to the doctoral research our son Christian is doing for the same institution where Newport received his PhD). The upshot is that, while many of us have no understanding of how great violinists, painters and other fine artists create new art, people who do not work in the areas of physics, math, chemistry and other such fields do not understand the kind and amount of effort required to get to the point where the creative process can even start. I just thought it was all very fascinating and I enjoyed the back and forth. Maybe there is a category difference here to which both allude but that leads to an unintended equivocation.

For such a young guy, Newport has done quite a lot of writing. The book on why “skills first” is a great approach looks great. I think I would agree somewhat less with advise on how to perform well in high school and college and not just because I am a proponent of skipping high school altogether. Based on the blurb for his other books, I think it is at least partially because he seems to be more focused on the measures of academic performance than mastery of subject matter. In a list of strategies in a blurb for his book titled How to Become a Straight-A Student, half of the strategies seem to advocate for this. That, however, is a minor quibble. I plan to order his books and read his blog regularly.

How to deal with a too “active” child

By Dad

On Monday, June 20, 2016

In culture, Education, Family

I was very active as a young child. I hear about it from cousins, aunts, uncles, neighbors and other of our family friends to this day. It was recommended to my parents by the government school I attended that maybe I should be medicated to calm me down and that was before medicating kids for things like ADHD was cool. Thankfully, my pharmacist mother knew better. I know I must have been a handful, but I also know I had good intentions and have to say that my problem was more a problem of energy, talkativeness and perpetual motion than of willfulness. Still, an article titled The Transforming of My STRONG-WILLED Child by a very successful homeschool mother at a blog I follow resonated with me greatly. I am sure a lot of what she says would have worked well for me, especially the part about being a friend to your children and taking time to play with them. The article is about how she managed the raising of two strong-willed boys. I think it was just masterful. Read the whole thing. Here is an excerpt:

CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY

The other thing I reflected that worked with both boys, is to be consistent in my reaction to them. It was hard not to yell, scream and curse them out (oh yeah, they can take me there), but MOST TIMES (hey, mom’s not perfect) I was consistent, non-effected outwardly, by their actions.

If I gave a punishment, I tried to think on it, make it conducive to the lesson I wanted to teach the child, and discuss with my spouse. However, for typical behavior, we had a consequence board that left no argument or debate on what the punishment was.

An example of this is when my oldest daughter yelled at her sister that ‘at school you are not my sister!’. That day, her punishment was that I took her own bedroom from her. She had to share a room with her sister until she learned ‘humility’ and kindness. Six months later, we decorated and opened up her own bedroom because she had changed greatly.

Test for tweet purposes

By Dad

On Friday, June 17, 2016

KellyRubix If anyone wants to follow me on twittery you can go here to do that. Trying to figure out how to tweet my posts. This post is my test post to use to figure that out. The photo was of Kelly at Thanksgiving time this year in Wilsonville.

Update: I found out the way to make it look good is to use Twitter Summary Cards. I am also adding the ability to tweet my posts from a button click.

Update 2: Figuring out that I have a lot left to learn. None of this stuff really lines up right and the lining up syntax seems really arbitrary.[bctt tweet=”Testing to see if my ‘Click to Tweet’ capability works.” via=”no”]

Peer review

By Dad

On Friday, June 17, 2016

In culture, Science

My buddy Andrew sent me a link that was so good, I have been saving it for a Friday to get the maximum impact. I do not think he will mind if I just paste it here cloth. Thank you Andrew, I have followed the twitter account and of course I am an avid fan of RetractionWatch.com–the site that tracks the people who get caught doing bad science.

I’m not sure who runs this Twitter account, so I’m not vouching for them, but they appear to post links to “peer-reviewed papers produced by the social sciences and humanities departments of western universities”… and their selections are simply ludicrous:

https://twitter.com/RealPeerReview

Apparently there was a different Twitter account that preceded this one, but it was shut down. I think because the person running it was exposed or feared being exposed. Here are a couple of articles related to one paper on “feminist glaciology” that the previous Twitter account put a spotlight on:

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/heres-why-an-article-about-feminist-glaciology-is-still-the-top-read-paper-in-a-major-geography-journal

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/03/qa-author-feminist-geology-study-reflects-sudden-place

Knowing how you feel regarding certain fields of study in academia, I couldn’t resist sharing with you.

Best,

Andrew

[bctt tweet=”Ludicrous ‘scholarship’ that passed peer review in the social sciences.” ]

A milestone (the hovercraft video)

By Dad

On Thursday, June 16, 2016

In Family, Technology

The video of the hovercraft Christian made when he was eleven just passed 70,000 hits!

Are we afraid to stand up for what is right…

By Dad

On Thursday, June 16, 2016

In Christianity

…because we do not want to be associated with some others who are tacky, but believe that same right thing? The following quote from a talk by a conservative given at a left-wing Christian conference on social justice comes from this article. First he acknowledged that there are Christians who do not consider the needs of those in prison, refugees and the other “least of these.” He noted some [Christians] are…

…afraid to speak up on a biblical view of issues of human sexuality because they’re afraid that somehow that means they will be associated with people in polyester somewhere that they don’t want to be like. How cowardly.

I think the sentiment is spot on and does not only apply to human sexuality, but to many of other issues. It cuts both ways, too. Is it hard for us to stand up for something that is right when a social justice warrior advocates who is hateful in so many other aspects of their activism advocates for that same right thing?

Who is the best arbiter of what is true?

By Dad

On Wednesday, June 15, 2016

In culture, Science

Douglas Axe is a very bright guy. He wrote what I believe is a very insightful article about what amounts to be the priesthood of science thinks about mere mortals who do not do science for a living. He comments on a graduation address from a guy who gives advice to Cal Tech grades about how they might rebuild public confidence in that the scientific community. It is very interesting to me the guy does not have an academic doctors degree (he is an M.D.), nor even a masters degree in a scientific discipline. Beside being an M.D. and professor, it appears he is mostly a public policy guy who moonlights as a “contributor” at a pseudo-intellectual magazine in New York. With not a lot of scientific background nor close proximity to anything that is remotely like the general public in America, I am wondering how he thinks he might be qualified to talk on that subject. Maybe there is something not in the public record that gives him some knowledge that is not so apparent from the outside looking in.

Axe is a working scientist who is profoundly more qualified than the graduation speaker to talk about the scientific enterprise. He says some things that make one think he might have a much better grasp not only of science, but the caricature that much of the scientific culture of the day has become. The whole article is worth a read, but here is an excerpt from Axe speaking about his own graduation from Cal Tech back in 1990:

The “we” versus “they” stance that characterizes Gawande’s speech would have resonated with me then, I think. When he said, “People are prone to resist scientific claims when they clash with intuitive beliefs,” I would have understood the coded language. “People” here means mere people — those who haven’t been inducted into the superior scientific “way of being.” So, what are we scientists to do when those unenlightened outsiders don’t follow us? Using smaller words and speaking more slowly only goes so far, because “once an idea has got embedded and become widespread, it becomes very difficult to dig it out of people’s brains — especially when they do not trust scientific authorities.”

Yes, indeed. People tend to be wary of that kind of brain surgery.

Maybe the better way to restore public confidence is to abandon the condescending mindset and embrace a much more radically inclusive view of science. Maybe the moms Gawande referred to–the ones who jumped to the conclusion that vaccines were dangerous — aren’t all that different from professional scientists who jump to the conclusion that public dissent is dangerous. Gawande gave five handy tips for writing people off as pseudoscientists, but instead of alienating people by dismissing them in this way, what if we were to view public opinion as the ultimate form of peer review?

Lorena goes even faster

By Dad

On Tuesday, June 14, 2016

In Exercise, Health

Lorena broke her previous personal record on a Concept 2 rowing machine. She was trying to get to 10,000 meters in less than 60 minutes. Actually, the numbers you see to the left are her second best effort. I did not have the best one to put up here which was slightly more. I checked into this and the world record for a light weight woman in her age group is over 15,000 meters and the U.S. record is over 14, 000 meters. Her achievement is an amazing one and she has decided to continue to try to improve on up to 12,000 meters in an hour. Rowing on a Concept 2 rowing machine was my preferred cardiovascular training mode when I was in my mid-thirties. What Lorena has done already is no mean achievement. She started out rowing for around five minutes per session a couple of years ago. I think she will be able to make it to 12,000.

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