The blogosphere has included a fair number of posts about 24 in the recent days. I've only seen the first season, but I actually got to edit the pilot episode as an exercise while in film school. In other words, I don't know all that much about Jack Bauer. I do know that he's saved the world a few times in a couple twenty-four hour periods.

Which is great.

But my life isn't like that at all.

Granted, I don't work for the CTU and my name isn't Jack--which means I'm not a doctor either. So, maybe that's what's holding me back from greatness. I mean, it's been a long time since a Luke did anything super important--like bring balance to the universe.

No, my life is rather mundane. I have a pretty wife, but she doesn't work for the CIA. I don't have kids as they are currently in Kyrgyzstan. We have a pet rat, but, doesn't everybody?

In fact, most days are predictable and devoid of much more than bad weather to mix things up. I'm glad for that, in many ways. I like routine and consistency. Sure, I want a bit more--like kids--to be part of my life, but I don't need to be diffusing bombs with computer viruses, performing blood transfusions with sea urchin spikes, or saving my daughter from a cougar.

But I do want my life to be meaningful and important. And I find myself thinking that if I was just in this or that "place in life"--then, then I would be important. Then I could make a difference.

The problem is that such thinking can distract me from focusing on what I should be doing, and working on the aspects of my life that do make a difference. Nothing huge, but important. How I treat my friends, how I talk with my wife, how I go about my work... all of those things have huge implications for my life and the lives of those around me.

Every day.

So, whether you're changing diapers, pushing papers, or waiting on a government agency, don't forget:

Even Jack Bauer has to sleep sometimes.

And often the greatest heroes go unsung every single day.

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

I'm adding a new feature to my blog: A Word of the Day!

As I come across words with which I am unfamiliar I will post them here. So, this will certainly not be every day--as I have some semblance of a vocabulary--but I've run across enough blogs with words that are either new to me or had slipped from my usage. This is my attempt to continue my life-long education.

Miasma: an unwholesome atmosphere; unhealthy vapors

Brought to you by Angela

Yes, I shamelessly used Sonlight's logo, but I needed an image of a book and it works very well. At least, I think so <smile>.

Now, I know that I just wrote about how we must be wary of statistics and reports. On the other hand, we shouldn't ignore them either. And it is at least interesting--if nothing else--that studies show that daycare may not be good for kids. In fact, the more time young children spend away from their mothers, the more likely they are to exhibit agression and disobedience... potentially.

Jess

If this turns out to be a verifiable fact, it wouldn't surprise me. I can think of many reasons why being put into a system is less than beneficial for a child's development. In fact, my dad loves telling about the time a librarian commented on how homeschoolers were vastly different from public schooled children. Instead of shuffling up to the desk and stating, "I need some help," homeschooled children would frequently wait until she was done with her task, look her in the eye and say, "Would you help me, please?"

Granted, I know children--even of homeschoolers--aren't always that perfect. There is plenty of evidence of this out here on the blogosphere. And so if it turns out that further studies prove there isn't a big difference in the miasma surrounding kids at home vs. those in group care options, I'll be okay with that. But my guess is that, at minimum, the amount of positive time parents spend with their children does dramatically influence their behavioral norms.

So whether you homeschool or not, be sure to spend some time with your children today.

And if you're of the praying persuasion, I would appreciate any prayers for our children still stuck in Kyrgyzstan... as we can't currently spend time with them.

If you're more of the thinking type, I welcome your thoughts as well <smile>.

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

It's amazing to me how we learn about things. I mean, "bailout" wasn't part of my vocabulary until recently. And it appears that another word will soon be added to my growing internal dictionary...

Ever heard of a phthalate before?

Well, there are currently 14 posts in my reader that talk about them.

Why? Because of the CPSIA--which is currently sparking a wildfire of rants and questions from people all over the nation wondering how we will be affected by this rather vague and poorly constructed law.

I have not had time--nor do I think I ever will--to actually read this law and all the commentary on the subject. But it sure has other people worried, and confused.

[Update: Thankfully, the law was amended to no longer include books... for now. Here's the latest news where books are no longer threatened to be required as part of testing. But, at the time, there were big questions regarding what the proposed law meant for Sonlight.]

What does it mean for homeschoolers everywhere?

How do we test for phthalates anyway?

I don't have answers, but I'm keeping my eyes and ears open. I definitely don't want to be broadsided by this in a month.

The one bit of good news is that someone far smarter and more versed in the law is checking into it here at Sonlight. I don't know what I'll be able to pass on, but if I hear anything that is postable, I'll be sure to keep you all informed.

Until then, it may be time to start teaching your children about phthalates and remind them not to eat paint chips that haven't been tested under the CPSIA regulations.

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

Today started off bad and didn't get better.

I'm not exactly depressed or upset, but things just haven't been good. Even so, I've keep my smile most of the time.

We'll see if I cry tonight.

I had a fight discussion with Brittany this morning, which took time out of my morning routine. This made me "late" for work [read: I came in at 7:30 instead of 6:30], and started things off on a less than pleasant note. Toward the end of our conversation, as I was heading out the door, I asked, "Why does time fly when I don't have any?"

"Because time isn't fair," my wise wife replied.

I noted that fact and tucked it away for a blog post later.

Two hours later, during our large group meeting, we got news that shattered morale. Not fun, but not public information either. Sorry.

We've long known that life isn't fair. That's one of those lessons that we learn early on but only apply toward things working against us. We rarely remember or notice when life has been unjust in our favor.

We've also known that time is a sneaky creature as well: He never waits for us and he moves more quickly when we're enjoying ourselves. He also runs away when we could really use him. Yet I had never heard, until this morning, that time itself is unfair.

Many research claims aren't exactly fair either. My mom sent me a link to an article that says homeschoolers do better academically than their public schooled peers, suggesting that I remind parents "that homeschooling works." And homeschooling absolutely does work.

Homeschooling is great!

But I've read very fascinating articles that point out that such statistics are horribly skewed. Milton Gaither points out that if we

control for variables like family income, race, and parent educational attainment level when making comparisons with the general population ...homeschoolers usually come out looking more average on things like standardized tests and college matriculation.

Mr. Gaither further responds to the report by saying:

What [Mr. Ray] ought to be saying and what other journalists and pundits who use his studies ought to be saying is not that homeschoolers outperform public schoolers. They ought to be saying that some middle-class, white, two-parent, conservative Protestant homeschoolers who volunteered for a research study that was pitched to them as a great opportunity to show off homeschooler success to the public, score in the 80th percentile or above on standardized tests.

So, yes, my mom is absolutely right: Homeschooling works. It works at least as well as any other educational system available.

Is it statistically 30% better than average?

That has, as far as I know, yet to be empirically demonstrated.

But time isn't playing fair again, and I must leave this post for now. Just remember: Just because someone has data or some other "proof," they may not be playing fair either. The difficulty is getting to the truth, since none of us are completely fair.

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

Words have different connotations, which can cause miscommunication. For instance, if I were to say, "Would you leave a comment on my blog, please," that could be taken as a genuine cry for help or as a mean/whiny demand for attention. (Please feel no need to express which you think I tend to employ <smile>)

Words often have different primary definitions for people as well. For example, if I say, "It's time for bed!" I think, 'Hurray, we get to go to sleep,' but Brittany thinks, 'He's rushing off to leave me laying awake and alone all night.'

It's a significant area of tension in our relationship.

But even knowing of these different approaches to words, sometimes I'm still thrown off when I read other blogs. Today, while catching up on Pamela's blog, I read the following:

I don't have all the books we need [for this semester of school]. I do have the curriculum and all the teacher things, but not the books.

I re-read the sentence because there had to be a typo. How in the world can you have "curriculum" and your required teaching tools and not have books?

And then it hit me: Some people define "curriculum" in a completely different way than I do.

Shocking. I know. But for me, with my Sonlight background, "curriculum" is a pile of books. Sure, curriculum also includes the science kits and the Instructor's Guides, but Sonlight's curriculum is books.

And this is the first time that I've been able to understand why places like Ambleside bother me so much: They claim to be "free curriculum" without giving you anything more than a schedule and a booklist. "That's not curriculum!" I retort.

Yet, for some people, it is. That's their definition. The connotation of curriculum for many families is the method/approach/system they will use as they educate their children. And I can see that. In fact, saying that we're a "Sonlight family" means exactly that. So it's really not that Ambleside provides great schedules and resources for so many families that gets under my skin. That's not it at all. Rather, it's the inference that can be drawn when you read about "free curriculum" that bugs me.

See, if you can get "free curriculum" at this site or you can pay for your curriculum at this site... why would you pay for curriculum at all? That inference bothers me because that's comparing apples to oranges (to borrow the colloquialism). One is an outline with recommended resources, the other is a package of books and materials. The inference is all wrong.

If we were comparing, say, Office to Open Office... well, then we could make such an inference: They are very, very similar--just one is open source and free and the other is not.

I guess I don't really have anything else to say about this. I just made a connection that I hadn't quite been able to put into words before now. Thanks for reading.

The vocabulary lesson is now over. The words we learned today are:

Connotation
Definition
Inference
Colloquialism
and, um... linebacker

"You know, education at its finest."

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

It amuses me when people say something and then add that it was "totally random."

Umm, no. Your brain made very specific jumps--even if you didn't follow them--to get you from wherever we were a moment ago to the where we are now. It may appear random to those who didn't follow all those jumps, but it was anything but.

In fact, one of my wife's favorite Pinky and the Brain episodes explores this very idea.

Where was I?

Oh yes: This post may appear random but is, in fact, a bunch of smaller bits that were too disjointed to fit into a cohesive post... hence: "Random."

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The latest winner of the Digital Flatline contest has been determined. This contest was for Sonlight students to create six icons with the theme of Christmas. You can see all the entrees here, but the winner was Meredith:

Congratulations, Meredith!

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I'm thrilled with the response I've had from my post on Friday. What fun!

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I love hearing about homeschool dads who discover the joy of reading with their kids. I must admit that sometimes I'm rather grumpy about reading to Brittany because reading can make me really tired. But whenever I'm reading a great book, I'm reminded of the joy of reading aloud to others. It is a blast!

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I'm pretty sure I signed my tithe check 1/4/08 yesterday.

Oops.

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Nevil was so excited about getting to his food last night that he ran down my arm and fell off. In the process he ripped off half my arm trying to stay on. I have a rather nasty scrape, the origin of which I could not figure out this morning.

Ouch

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That's it for the moment. I don't have much time to write today. Sorry. But there is plenty of material to read in my Other Posts of Note, in case you forgot that was there <smile>.

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

Okay, friends: Time for a test. Fear not, this is only a test. If this were the real deal my hope would be that you wouldn't even notice and would mindlessly participate. But, for this one time only, I'm going let you retain your conscious control over your will and ask you to do something for me.

Click It! please

Oh, I see how it is.

You prefer those ubiquitous "text links," do you? Well, since I'm such a nice guy, please feel free to click here instead.

If you clicked both, that's okay.

Not ideal, but okay.

No, really, don't worry. You didn't exactly destroy my test. I mean, I'm not totally sure how bad it would be if you did, but it's okay. I mean, it's my test and everything, so if it breaks down it's not your fault... exactly.

What? You're one of those people who wants to know what's going on before you do anything, are you?

Perhaps you're one of those really web savvy peoples who noticed that the url for those link is "https://www.sonlight.com/index.html?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_source=081231test" and you're suspicious of me. 'Where is he taking me?' you wonder. 'Is it one of those virus thingies?'

No, this is just a little test thing for a tracking system Sonlight uses to see how effective our writing is. In other words: The "man" is coming after me and I have to prove myself a worthy opponent, and I need your help! By clicking on the click here links you are enabling me to test my use of link codes which lab rats and typewriter equipped monkeys will tabulate, the results of which will determine if I need to be replaced by said monkeys and lab rats.

And you don't want to start reading posts by a monkey, do you?

I don't.

So, please, for the love of my blogging, click here. The link should open a new window/tab and you'll be able to come right back.

Thank you.

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

...wait, you didn't click all of those, did you!? <smile>

P.S. For those looking for a practical application for this inane post... umm... I've got nothing, and I hope you leave a comment with some brilliant connection to the real world.