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.

After watching another cool episode of Battlestar^* with Jason last night, we got to talking about social ills and the solutions to them. Granted, our conversation drifted everywhere from the shortcomings of extreme Libertarianism to frustration due to the modern job market. But one of the questions raised by the show was that of class distinctions in the workforce. Due to the fleet's situation, people were being forced into certain classes and job opportunities from which there was no real hope of breaking free for the next generation.

The class distinction naturally existed in this fictitious world--and, to a lesser degree, in ours as well--and so we are left with the question of what can be done about these discrepancies. Our society certainly balks at the idea of ridged social strata, but how do we keep classes open?

Why, with education, of course.

"Education," however, is a tricky thing. Learning is a profoundly individual experience and the goals, aspirations, and focus varies greatly for each organization and person. The moment you move beyond the three basics--reading, writing, and arithmetic--people get into serious disagreement.

And then there's the question of means: How do we provide adequate education for everyone? Homeschooling is not, sadly, for everyone. Every public option suffers from a class hierarchy of its own, and in many cases is far from ideal. And private, "free market" based options are not accessible to those seeking to break out of the lowest classes.

Philanthropy is certainly one very powerful tool, as demonstrated by the wonderful success of the Rice Bag project which will transform the lives of well over 7,000 women (as well as their families) in India.

I don't really have any complete answers to these issues. And that's probably why I enjoy shows like Battlestar Galactica: They create a world that allows us to explore the more foundational aspects of our lives and consider how, perhaps, we should live differently.

May your educational endeavors--no matter what they are--bring you and your children to where you should be.

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

*NB: Battlestar Galactica has quite a bit of content that is not suitable for children and may be outside the bounds of propriety for your family.

Announcement: My wife is starting up her own blog to try to get some more routine into her life. I'd love it if you popped over there and gave her some encouragement as she gets going <smile>.
Thanks!

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I don't know about you, but sometimes I'm going along in my day thinking about the wonderful topics I could post about and then suddenly my mind gets stuck on some topic and I just can't shake it.

That just happened to me.

Take a minute and think about this music video (if you didn't on Friday).

I had no idea this song is actually a "Christmas standard" ... I'm so ignorant.

And while I can see this song/video as an anti-war bit, I found the (perceived?/implied?/assumed?/intended?) message to be rather negative toward Christianity. Especially with a quote supposedly from Gandhi: An eye for an eye will make us all blind.

But as I watched the video I felt a certain... exuberance and sorrow. Christmas--God coming to dwell among us to later sacrifice Himself for us--is the only solution to the problems so graphically recorded in the video. So for me, any kind of "just choose not to fight" ideologies that may have been intended by the filmmaker are shown to be futile. Christ is the only solution to these problems, and just because peace may be something we want, that does not mean that we can simply have it by wanting it. Evil continues, even--especially?--if we stand back.

And the quote is horribly wrong. We would only all be blind if we allowed evil men to poke out everyone's eye and only then decided to exact justice. And that's often why we fight wars: With the hope of eradicating injustice (or at least tipping it in our favor). I don't go around poking people's eyes out, so assuming nobody came to do it to me, I, at least, could be king in the land of the blind. I think the point of the quote is closer to the heart of another quote: If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. But that is not the entirety of wisdom surrounding how to respond to evil.

War is a gruesome thing. People are evil.

We can't stop that simply by wishing everyone a merry Christmas, even if your name is John Lennon.

But Christmas is a reminder of what ultimately will end war... right after a last great big one.

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father

I've been rather alone here at Sonlight today.

Alone in the Cube Maze

Most people took the day off to extend their holiday and recuperate from the madness, so I think there's only two other people in this quarter of the building.

It's relatively quiet.

Email has also been rather devoid of chatter.

And that's not a bad thing at all.

I'm still not on top of everything again, but I no longer feel like I'm drowning in missed information and a sea of deadlines. This holiday season has been filled with travel and time with family. This has meant that I haven't been in the office as much as my routine personality would prefer.

I don't mind working on the road on borrowed computers, but there's something about working in my familiar environments on my own machines that I miss terribly when I'm away.

"Home is where my computer is plugged in and turned on."

I've said that often.

So whether you're still on a break, recovering from an eggnog overdose, cleaning up the dishes from last night, back to work, or doing school today... may you find rest and peace. May you also get done with everything you need to do before the weekend, even if that is three more naps.

Taking a break is a good thing.

Stopping by to say, "Hi," to a friend trapped in a maze of cubicles is nice too <smile>.

See you all on Monday!

~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father