As a professional blogger, I lead an interesting life.

No, not quite that interesting.

What I mean is that the line between my personal life and my professional life is blurring. And, in many ways, it's blurring for all of us as our information becomes more and more accessible to the Whole Wide World.

Blurring the Line

That's why I thought twice about writing my latest personal post ...and then went ahead and did it anyway. While I always try to be fair, I'm a little more "contained" on this blog.

So why am I writing about this over here on my blog about Sonlight and homeschooling?

Because one of my jobs here at Sonlight is to be a "Media Relations Specialist" and keep tabs on the crazy world of social media. And that means watch what people say about Sonlight on their blogs and help customers or give more information where possible.

Much like what I think--and hope--Macon Phillips meant in his post. And, in many ways, I totally understand the desire to "keep track of all [rumors]" because I'd like to do the same thing. It's very important to help people know the truth if they somehow have the wrong idea.

But Phillips' word choice was poor.

He wants citizens to email in "fishy" sites to an address that "flags" it for the Whitehouse? For what purpose? To what end?

If Phillips would have elaborated more on what's going to happen, I think it wouldn't be nearly as disturbing. But since he did not elaborate, and we're already heard some pretty scary things from fishy sites, he didn't help us feel better.

Also, since I get paid for what I do here at Sonlight, I am interested in how much tax money is going into this initiative. I think, much like my position, this is probably fairly important if done correctly. So, in the spirit of giving, here's what I do:

1. I ask people to tell me about things that they think I'd be interested to know.
2. If someone has misinformation about Sonlight, I try to inform them graciously.
3. If someone has a complaint against Sonlight, I do everything I can to make the situation right.
4. I have alerts that let me know when people talk about Sonlight on their blogs so I can add them to my reader and get to know them and where they're coming from.
5. I try to focus on the positives. Because I can say whatever I want about Sonlight, but it's the people who have actually experienced it that have the most credibility.
6. I leave comments open so people can talk to me if they want.

Granted, my position at Sonlight is probably significantly smaller--and of less mass appeal--than one of the hottest topics in the political world right now. But if you're opening yourself up to a barrage of emails, I hope you've got a system in place to handle them.

I know I do:

Just Kidding <smile>

 ~Luke Holzmann
Media Relations Specialist

Detraction: the act of discrediting or detracting from someone's reputation (especially by slander)

Brought to you by Jennifer Fulwiler

I've been reading a lot of posts about how people are homeschooling this year. And, I've included several in the Other Posts of Note as they rave about how great Sonlight is <smile>.

But with all this planning and purchasing there comes the question of, "What is the the 'right' method of homeschooling?"

Currently, the accepted wisdom is "whatever is best for you and your family." And, who's going to argue with that? Who would honestly say, "Use something that is not best for you and your family"? No one, especially since one of the many strengths of homeschooling is that you can form it to fit the needs of you and your children.

And yet, when we look at the answer, we discover that it merely begs the original question: Well, then, what is the "right" method that will be best for me and my family?

I'm reading The Paradox of Choice right now, and it's interesting (of course, so are the negative reviews). The basic premise is that we have too many options available to us today and that is actually making us less happy with our final decisions because we worry about what we might be missing.

What's more, in the section I read just last night, things are further complicated by the fact that how we make choices is not altogether wise. For instance, we'd rather hear a 16 second annoying sound that tapers off at the end than just the initial 8 seconds of annoying audio. We choose twice as as much annoyance because we judge things by how they end, rather than what it was like while we experienced it.

Of course, there can be good in this too. I think minimizing the pain and struggle of birth or adoption is probably a good thing as we consider bringing another bundle of joy into our lives <smile>.

What does this have to do with choosing a homeschool curriculum?

Merely this: Feel free to try out something else if something isn't working, but don't let it bog you down.

It feels almost wrong for me--a Sonlight promoter--to suggest that if Sonlight isn't working for you, you can try something else. But it shouldn't because we've got 27 Reasons Not to Buy Sonlight.

Of course, this cuts the other way as well: If you're not thrilled with what you have, check out Sonlight.

And if you don't know where to start, maybe, just maybe, you'd be happier if you just purchased one of Sonlight's amazing Cores and decided that it works for your family. And if it works then it's "good enough" ...no, even better than that: It's perfect for you and your family.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

Read this long article and the comments that follow.

JJ

For those who don't have the time to read a long article, I'll try to sum it up:

A "religious studies" professor states that he is completely different from a theology professor because he focuses on how and why religions exist (from a social level) whereas theologians focus on defending a made up set up beliefs (from an errant view). He is thus, naturally, frustrated that the two are so often lumped together. There's also a bit about how theology leads to no knowledge but only lies because god doesn't exist...

The comments tear this article apart (for the most part), though there is a rather interesting comment that seems to agree.

I've not really had an idea of what to say about all this, but it reminded me of a debate recently held at my alma mater. Now, people can disagree that God exists, but I think Craig did a good job of showing that God does exist. And, from the articles linked at the bottom of the announcement, Craig had the better argument.

But, as Doug TenNapel points out:

Hitchens won the debate. It's not the argument of the debaters, it's the condition of the audience that wins the day. While few of Dr. Craig's arguments are dispersed through culture, even religious culture, I've been raised on most of Hitchens' arguments. Dr. Craig's arguments are true and well-reasoned by difficult to comprehend on a first hearing. Hitchens' arguments are what we'll find spoken against God on prime time television, at the water-cooler, I've even heard some of them on Animal Planet. Culture generally makes Hitchens' argument by default. And it's easier to claim the skeptic's nothing than affirm the something of God...

I find this kind of thing fascinating, and important to consider.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

P.S. There is a new Box Day Flair at the bottom of the Widgets page.

Organizational skills are essential to get through huge projects like MathTacular or Discover & Do. In editing, you must keep track of hundreds of activities with many little clips and graphics and audio files which all combine to make hours of educational fun.

But sometimes my internal organization and penchant for order gets hijacked by the necessity of getting something done quickly. ...always with the hope that I will never have to go back and sort out the mess again later. Like the timeline I was building just a few hours ago:

Messy Layers on a Timeline

It's always nice to have tools that can help you keep track of everything, especially as need arises to make changes. And in homeschooling, Sonlight's IGs can be a huge help in this area. In media production... I have no such handy tool.

And just a heads up: I'm going to go visit in the in-laws for an extended weekend, so I probably won't see you all until Wednesday. We leave tonight sometime after 9pm, and your thoughts and prayers are much appreciated as we travel.

Have a great weekend, friends!

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

P.S. Since I am trying not to compare my rather juvenile writing to the brilliance of others, I am happy to refer you to Billy's post about good days. It is excellent. And you'll find that post and lots of other interesting bits from the blogosphere in what I think are Other Posts of Note.

A couple evenings ago one of my friends, Marie, came by and we did a photoshoot. My best friend, Jason, is really good at photography, and we keep trying to find subjects he can practice on... and I tag along because it's fun.

We were shooting in what will be Eduard's room, and our model suggested we snap some pictures of her reading some of the children's books. Jason then came up with the brilliant idea of having her read Time for Friends. And, sure, I stayed up past midnight that evening, but I got to help my best friend practice his photography and got an awesome promotional picture for my little book:

Marie Reading Time for Friends

[By the by, Marie said the story was super cute. So... you should get a copy if you don't have one already <smile>]

In even more directly Sonlight related news, we have debugged an issue surrounding submitting large images to our Photo Contest. You can now upload .jpg images that are up to 25MB... which is huge. And we've said that you could for a long time now, but now you really can.

In attempting to fix the bug, I had to run a couple of tests. Here are the results from one of them:

Bob - The Fictional non-Homeschooling Sonlighter

And one more little thing:

If you open an image of any of Sonlight's products, you will now be greeted by this cheery little guy while your image loads:

See if you can find him--er... "it"?--floating around Sonlight's website...

Enjoy!

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

Gambit: an opening remark intended to secure an advantage for the speaker

And now that you are all supremely interested and feel that I know what I'm talking about, I will shatter that myth.

Because the word I was looking for this morning was actually: Gamut-a complete extent or range.

But other than gambit, the only other word I could think of was gauntlet, which also isn't right. Though, when I came in this morning, I felt that the gamut of my experience was a gauntlet because the gambit of an email I sent yesterday was wrong.

Luke turns on his computer and discovers that the email he sent yesterday had the wrong subject line. Luke thinks to himself, 'Self, this is less than ideal. Good thing it only went to 28,000 people...'

Luke proceeds to struggle to focus for the rest of the day while everyone scrambles to figure out how to make it right.

Which is the other possible title for today's post:

D'oh! The Turning of a Big Ship

Sonlight isn't huge as far as corporations go, but we are bigger than when my mom and dad pretty much did everything back in the day. Then, if something like this had happened, my dad would write an apology and send it.

Done.

Today it's a little different. We get a bunch of feedback, have a writer synthesize that down, get it approved, tested, tweaked, coded, and finally sent...

The good part of all this is that we can be methodical, careful, get wise counsel and ultimately help more people. But it's certainly slower than if Sonlight were a one man band.

We're no longer a sailboat that can tack--hmm... turns out it's actually "beating"--its way up a stream, but we can help many, many more people get to where they want to go.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

I have a sensitivity to wheat. If I eat something "wheated" then something goes wonky in my body and I suddenly have difficulty responding to negative situations appropriately. But I didn't figure this out until I was in college.

And it took a while for me to believe that wheat did, indeed, throw me off.

In fact, it wasn't until a year of not eating wheat had gone by that I could feel the shift if I had any. And there were enough times when I ate wheat without realizing it--and freaked out; only to discover that, say, Teriyaki sauce contains wheat--that I came to accept the fact that I have a sensitivity.

But before that, I was pretty sure it was just a negative placebo. An excuse. Life was just really horrible when I had an "episode"--the wheat, just a convenient scapegoat.

My distrust of my body's signals was due in large part to the fact that I know placebos work. People really do get better taking sugar tablets they believe are a wonder drug. Which, I guess, further indicates how right my mother-in-law is: We know so little about how our bodies work, there are many things the medical world just doesn't know yet. Like, what's up with wheat sensitivities.

This morning I came across this very short paragraph about educational placebos, and it got me thinking. Give it a read; I'll wait.

...

Much like my wheat sensitivity, I don't think education is a placebo. But there is something to be said for the mystery of how education works. Everything from radical unschooling to the most strict and mass-produced of public educations have lead to some wild successes as well as dismal failures.

How? Why?

<shrug>

What this does mean is that homeschooling is a fantastic option. Perhaps not a panacea, but also not a placebo. And homeschooling with Sonlight could be just what the doctor ordered...

(figuratively speaking, of course)

 ~Luke Holzmann
A Friend, Not A Doctor